THE ORIGIN OF 
SUPERNATURAL 
CONCEPTIONS 



Hill 1 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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Book . ^l_ 

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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE ORIGIN OF 
SUPERNATURAL CONCEPTIONS 



THE 

Origin of Supernatural 
Conceptions 

AND 

DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIONS 

FROM PREHISTORIC 

TIMES 

JOHN JAMES GREENOUGH 




Boston 

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR 

Address, Alton Place, BrookUne 

1906 



* u «£ 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Cooies Received 

AUG 20 1906 

CLASS Aft, XXc. NO. 
COPY B, r 



Copyright, iqob 
By John James Greenough 



All rights reserved 



COLONIAL PRESS 

Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds &* Co. 

Boston, U.S.A. 



To my fellow citizens I dedicate this work, a labor of love, the 
result of nearly three - quarters of a century of careful investigation 
and thought unbiassed by any preconceived theory or dogmatic as- 
sumption. It is based entirely on the statements derived from the 
earliest written legends of which we have any knowledge, logically 
construed for the judgment of the critical and independent investiga- 
tors who with the writer desire the highest good for their fellow men. 

J. L C. 

Alton Place, Brookline 
Jan. 19, 1904. 



Abou-Ben-Adhem (may his tribe increase !) 

Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace, 

And saw within the moonlight of his room, 

Making it rich and like a lily in bloom, 

An Angel writing in a book of gold. 

Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold, 

And to the presence in the room he said, 

" What writest thou ? " The vision raised its head, 

And with a look made of all sweet accord, 

Answered, " The names of those who love the Lord." 

" And is mine one ? " said Abou. " Nay, not so," 

Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low, 

But cheerily still, and said, " I pray thee, then, 

Write me as one that loves his fellow men." 

The angel wrote and vanished. The next night 

It came again with a great wakening light, 

And showed the names whom love of God had blessed. 

And lo ! Ben Adbem's name led all the rest ! 

— Leigh Hunt. 



vh 



Preface 



The knowledge of the advent of man and his sta- 
tus in the universe wherein he found himself prior to 
the attainment of modern science, was derived from 
traditionary legends evolved from the vivid imagi- 
nations of the human brain attempting to interpret 
the history of his creation, and the purpose of his 
existence. It is apparent that those legends have 
a fictitious origin, although they were assumed to be 
divine revelations. There is a tendency in the hu- 
man mind to retain its early impressions with great 
tenacity; and it is difficult, and often impossible, 
to unlearn the most illogical and preposterous falla- 
cies that men have been taught as truths in their 
earlier life while they seize with avidity every pre- 
tension to reveal a future life they have learned to 
believe in, but of which no man has any knowl- 
edge or comprehension, except from the fabulous 
traditions of unknown writers. 

Up to a comparatively recent date no true solu- 
ix 



tion of the mechanism of the universe was achieved, 
about which the writers of all prior histories and 
legends called revelations were in entire ignorance. 
To doubt the truth of these so-called revelations has 
been deemed sacrilegious, and has often been vis- 
ited with drastic punishment for the alleged profa- 
nation. The present age has emerged from the 
thraldom of this ancient bigotry, and finds no trace 
in recent history of any supernatural act or com- 
munication; which naturally engenders a doubt of 
the truthfulness of the ancient traditions that is still 
further confirmed by the fundamental errors to be 
found in all traditional revelations. 

With the above facts clearly established we may 
venture upon a strict investigation of the ancient 
writings, with no hesitation on our part in repudiat- 
ing the narratives of supernatural occurrences of 
which modern experience has no truthful example. 

In investigating the superstitions that have per- 
vaded the thoughts of man from a period anterior 
to historic data, which have formed so much of the 
traditional and written literature with which the state- 
ment of facts has been inextricably interwoven, it is 
difficult to trace the true origin of the myths of un- 
known ages. While the supernatural events re- 
corded in Eastern legends may be retained as illus- 



Wxtfutt 

trations of the creative power of the active imagina- 
tion of the human mind, they have long since been 
discarded as realities by the world of science. 

There is a firm belief still retained by a large ma- 
jority of men in the truth of traditionary miracles 
and divine interposition, on which the dominant 
religions are founded. We note that in religions 
holding a common origin, there are numerous sects 
and interpreters radically opposed to each other, 
which in past times have produced dissensions and 
bloody strife, and are still a source of polemic wran- 
gling and waring disaster. 

Before attempting to investigate the origin of re- 
ligion, it may be well to fix a definite meaning to that 
constantly employed word. We find in the modern 
lexicons numerous meanings ascribed to the word 
religion, that differ widely in their nature, and are 
antagonistic in their purport. If by religion is meant 
the healthful development of a right life, a practice 
of conscientious duty to our fellow men, and abstain- 
ing from all injustice, every right-minded man must 
give it his approval. But if by religion is meant " a 
system of faith in, and worship of, a divine being 
or beings " (entirely beyond our knowledge, except 
from the traditions of unknown authors of mystic 
legends, unconfirmed), the modern agnostic disbe- 

xi 



WvtUtt 

lieves. We have generally used the word religion in 
the latter sense, as dogmatic, in the succeeding pages. 

There are few noted scientists in modern times 
who would not be classed as agnostics. They are 
generally so entirely engrossed in the search for, and 
development of, truth, which is making such won- 
derful progress at the present day, that they have 
no time to devote to discussions about current be- 
liefs in religion, nor to the petty altercations of the 
theologians over dogmatic interpretations and creeds, 
which neither their authors nor interpreters have 
any real knowledge of the truth of, and of which 
there is no proof but vague tradition. 

The mission of an iconoclast is not only displeas- 
ing but perilous ; in attempting to destroy the time- 
consecrated idols believed in for ages, he cannot 
expect to escape vituperation, unfair criticism, and 
opposition. Fortunately in these days he cannot 
here be assailed with imprisonment, torture, or death. 
Ostracism, anathema, and slander are the only 
weapons left the fanatical force in America, although 
severer penalties are still imposed elsewhere for dif- 
fering from or opposing established faith. 

Some fifty years or more ago, I was impelled to 
write upon this subject; but I then felt that, in at- 
tempting to destroy a delusion on which organized 

xii 



society was founded, and for which I had no efficient 
substitute, I might weaken the organization of so- 
ciety. This caused me then to delay further action, 
but time has now convinced me that until the fabu- 
lous is expurgated from human reason there is no 
hope that any radical improvement in true culture 
can be attained. 

The hideous crimes that have been perpetrated 
even in modern times, in priestridden nations, con- 
clusively show that power alone is wanted to reenact 
the barbarism of the Spanish Inquisition and the 
prohibition of free thought. The incarceration of 
an innocent girl in a nunnery, recently enacted in 
Europe, for desiring to marry in opposition to the 
will of her parents, where she was walled up for 
twenty years in a living tomb by a brutal fiend, the 
superior (who was made a brutal fiend by her fanati- 
cal faith, until all the elements of humanity and 
true womanhood were extinguished in her), is too 
heartrending and revolting to be passed over in si- 
lence. It must remain as an episode of a religion of 
the nineteenth century. 

The more recent offence of a French Jesuit was 
brought to light in the courts in the present century, 
where it was shown that a Jesuit priest called l ' Pere 
Rouvirier " (his name should be execrated for his 

xiii 



WvtUtt 

damnable arts) so wrought upon a sensitive neo- 
phyte of wealth as to cause her to martyrize herself 
until she died, suffering torture, that he might reap 
the fruits of her wealth, which the enlightened 
French court happily frustrated by annulling her 
will. The sad history of this poor girl's sufferings 
in mind and body is heartrending; and when we 
learn that it was endured through the teachings and 
instigation of this human monster under the guise 
of divine instruction, we must condemn in the se- 
verest terms a religion that produces such fruits. 
But we hear the Protestants exclaim, * ' This is not 
Christianity as taught by us." Unfortunately I 
remember the incarceration in the last century of 
Robert Taylor in Protestant England, because he 
published his belief that the Christian religion had 
no indisputable foundation for claiming a higher 
morality or truth than any other, and the earlier 
persecution of the Quakers and others in England, 
Scotland, and America, remnants of which remain 
of this repression in the legal interference with natu- 
ral rights still extant. It may be well for modern 
sectarians to investigate how far the acts of their 
predecessors accord with the views that have been 
produced in the moral code evoked by modern sci- 
ence at the present day. 

xiv 



WttUtt 

We see superstitions still active, like those which 
misled the world in earlier times, engendering strange 
aberrations of reason and common sense in this 
enlightened age and country, culminating in the 
knowledge that such gross impostors as Ann Lee, the 
female Christ of the Shakers, Joseph Smith, the 
prophet of the Mormons, Mrs. Eddy, the Christian 
Scientist, and that audacious pretender, Dowie, have 
all gathered hosts of followers, often highly intelli- 
gent, who profess to believe in their divine mission ; 
and there are not a few at this time who may have 
serious dubitancy on the subject of their teachings 
that are inclined to join them. 

If it is assumed that any supernatural phenome- 
non ever occurred in this world at any time, there 
can be no insuperable barrier to a claim for its 
repetition, or a belief in its accomplishment by any 
pretender to divine inspiration and power. 

I ask for no leniency or favor, and offer no apology, 
for what I have written in the following pages. If 
anything therein can be proved to be erroneous, I 
shall gladly accept and acknowledge the correction. 

J. J. Greenough. 

Brookline, Jan. 19, 1905. 



XV 



Introduction 



In this essay on the origin of the superstitions and 
dogmas of the human race, I have attempted to 
trace their derivation and development, through 
man 's innate intellectual powers, which have evolved 
ideas of a transcendent being actuating the creation, 
— ideas that are deduced from the natural laws of 
mental evolution. 

My endeavor has been to show that there never 
was a supernatural revelation, miracle, or other ab- 
normal manifestation, from any spiritual entity, or 
other source divine; and that all legends recording 
phenomena of that character, with which the world 's 
literature is filled, were derived from unexplained 
natural phenomena, or the human imagination, be- 
fore a true knowledge of the cosmos, or psychic laws, 
was conceived. 

I have suggested the probable origin of supernatu- 
ral conceptions, from their primitive source up to 
xvii 



Xutt'oHuctioti 

their development in historic times. A critical ex- 
amination and analysis of the ancient records will 
clearly show their source to be the human brain; 
this is obviously apparent in the voluminous Indian, 
Egyptian, Babylonian, and Assyrian writings, and 
through Grecian and Roman mythology, down to the 
Christian era — an outcome of Alexandrian culture, 
the mother of sectaries. 

I have only sketched concisely some of the numer- 
ous exhibitions of an early mental activity, for, 
tempting as the subject is, it has been fully elabo- 
rated by writers more learned and able than myself. 

My first chapters are briefly introductory to an 
extended investigation of Judaism and Chris- 
tianity, past and present, and the primitive char- 
acter of the Hebrews' God as depicted in the Old 
Testament, upon which the Christian religion is 
founded. 

While carefully evolving a life of Christ from the 
traditional narratives of his followers, as recorded 
in the Gospels, that were written a hundred years 
or more after his death by unconditional believers 
in his divinity, we have produced a somewhat less 
transcendent delineation of him who posed as the 
Messiah of the Hebrews in the Gospels, and de- 
clared himself " King of the Jews, ' ' for which he was 
xviii 



Xutrrtttctfon 

tried by the Roman governor Pilate, found guilty, 
and crucified. 

Although all mention of Christ's belligerent acts 
is omitted in the Gospels, with one notable excep- 
tion, — when he entered the Temple at Jerusalem 
with a host of followers shouting hosannas, who pro- 
claimed him " King of the Jews, ' ' and drove out the 
occupants, — yet his bellicose utterances and con- 
stant movements with an army of catechumens, 
thousands in number, indicate unrecorded overt 
acts, which furnish the only rational reason for his 
execution. 

Entering upon this task with no desire to estab- 
lish any unwarranted theory, but simply to elicit a 
rational interpretation of a life record assumed to 
be divine, drawn from the fragmentary records of 
catechumens, that were written from tradition long 
after the time the events were said to have occurred, 
I have endeavored to reconcile and render intelli- 
gible the great contrariety of teachings and acts re- 
corded, that led up to, and account for, the cruci- 
fixion ; which under any other theory would seem to 
be baseless and inexplicable. 

A candid examination of the teachings of the 
gospel with the influence of a divine afflatus elimi- 
nated, shows that the apothegms and proverbs are 

xix 



XtUrottuctfotf 

mostly found in the teachings drawn from earlier 
sources, anticipated by uninspired men long before 
the birth of Christ, — notably the Hindu writings, 
the Golden Rule of Confucius, and the moral teach- 
ings of Pythagoras, — while some of the instruc- 
tions in the Gospels seem inequitable and unprac- 
tical, if not immoral. 

My purpose is to convince my fellow men that 
they have received at their birth all the revelation 
that they will ever receive, in the fundamental power 
to attain the knowledge they can compass by their 
own exertions, or from the acquirements of their 
compeers. On the proper use of man's mental pow- 
ers will depend the best results for human advance- 
ment. This is shown in the profound intellectual 
and moral teaching of recent times, and the refined 
culture evolved by the genius and learning of modern 
civilization, due to scientific cultivation. Ancient 
truisms are often used as texts, with the assumed 
glamour of divine revelation, to base profound hom- 
ilies upon. These could not have been achieved 
until modern science burst the shackles with which 
dogmatic religion sought to bind the free volition of 
man, and his freedom of thought. 

We believe the world is the home and field of labor 
of the human race, and is governed by immutable 

xx 



Kutvotructtou 

laws that no power of man can change. His duty 
is to learn their purport, and avail himself of their 
uses ; to neglect or evade this we assume is a crime. 
It should be our highest aspiration to act benefi- 
cently for the race, and for ourselves ; our lives are 
a birthright for us to exercise our intellects upon, 
and improve in knowledge and wisdom; by so do- 
ing we shall render the highest and holiest tribute 
of reverence to the genitor of our being, whose works 
are our lesson, to be studied for the welfare of man- 
kind, not to be ignored or neglected for ideal crea- 
tions. 

The universe which is spread before us we are 
comparatively ignorant of. Let us seek to obtain 
a knowledge of the attainable before we attempt to 
fathom a hereafter that we can never know in our 
present state, or obtain a knowledge of from the 
crude and superstitious records of an anterior age. 

In tracing the source from which the origins of 
the superstitions of the world are derived, and the 
innumerable ideal creations emanating from the fer- 
tile imagination of man, we perceive the wonderful 
power attained in this highly organized structure; 
and the more minutely it is analyzed, the more per- 
fect seems the adaptation of means to ends, as we 
from time to time attain a true knowledge of them. 

xxi 



Knttrolrttttton 

It is now clearly understood that, prior to any his- 
toric record yet discovered, men were organized into 
communities and nations, with governments and 
laws restricting them to certain courses of action, 
deemed to be proper and correct, and that there 
were punishments enacted for a dereliction from 
established law; right and wrong were determined, 
not always, as we now think, equitably, but the belief 
was established. Under these advancing forms of 
civilization great cities and elaborate temples were 
built, and structures and implements of defence and 
aggression were devised, as the interests of different 
nations became antagonistic. The beauty and gran- 
deur of their structures evince a cultivation and luxu- 
rious display marvellous to behold in these latter 
days. While much of the outward and apparent 
was appreciated and understood, the fundamental 
principles and sources of the visible universe were 
unknown, but as the nature of men 's mental powers 
would not rest with unexplained phenomena, they 
actively sought for a solution in their imagination; 
the bolder and more active formed systems, that 
were seized upon and elaborated from age to age by 
credulous followers in their efforts to obtain an ex- 
planation of the unknown. 

The organization of communities and nations pro- 
xxii 



KtUtroiruttion 

duced, through the inequality of individuals, rulers 
who could dispense favors, and punish or reward 
as their will dictated. With this experience before 
them men formulated their conceptions of a power 
or powers that created and governed the world they 
lived in. 

As they knew from experience that they could 
obtain favors from their rulers by subserviency and 
by the bestowal of gifts upon them, they had no 
doubt of their efficacy with their supernatural rulers ; 
and the more costly and elaborate the tribute, the 
more acceptable would it be to the gods to whom it 
was given. Thus was established an adulation and 
worship, with the building of temples, and offering 
of gifts and sacrifice to propitiate the divine powers, 
that could in no other way be reached. This uni- 
versal belief in an endless variety of forms comes 
from an undeviating source, the natural phenomena 
with which we are surrounded misinterpreted and 
misunderstood. From time to time, as tradition in- 
forms us, there have been men with transcendent 
intellects, that have caught glimpses of the true cos- 
mos and have based theories thereon ; but they were 
imperfect and uncertain, although often containing 
pertinent truths. The commencement of true knowl- 
edge, imperfect though it still is, began within the 
xxiii 



Knttotruttfon 

recent centuries. If we consider antiquity and uni- 
versal belief a criterion of truth, there are over- 
whelming descriptions of supernatural communica- 
tion between a spirit world and man; but if a just 
perception of the elements from which the legends 
that chronicle the exhibition of the miraculous are 
obtained, it will be seen that they all emanate from 
a mistaken interpretation of cause and effect. 

It is conceded that the Hindus were an exceed- 
ingly intellectual and profoundly metaphysical peo- 
ple, and elaborated a religion so transcendental as 
to be beyond the scope of modern thinkers. They 
had in their mythology numerous deities of varied 
powers that to the modern thinker are but the vis- 
ions of the meditative Brahman ; no one in Europe 
or America believes in the divinity of Brahma or 
Vishnu. So of the Egyptian cult, the concentration 
of the intellect of a highly intelligent and cultivated 
nation, with an elaborate theology, by whom, like 
the Hindus, stupendous and costly temples were 
built, more enduring than their religion, of which, 
or their theomancy, there are now no believers. 
Again the highly cultivated Greek, and the world- 
conquering Roman, — their systems of religion were 
in a high degree elaborate, ideal, and refined, the 
keynote being justice, honor, probity, and especially 
xxiv 



Kntrotrttttfon 

truth. The philosophers of Greece are quoted to- 
day for their profound thoughts, — yet who believes 
in their theology, or their graphic and poetical leg- 
ends of the gods ? From almost all the ancient re- 
ligions we learn there was one transcendent god 
with subordinate gods for the multiplicity of human 
attributes and wants; later these minor gods were 
eliminated, and in their places angels and spirits 
have been substituted, while in one of the modern 
religions three gods have been by some theological 
legerdemain resolved into one. We thus see that 
there is no innate attribute of worship in man, but 
simply an attempt to personify a cause beyond his 
knowledge, and invest it with the very human love 
of adulation experience has shown to be character- 
istic of man's earthly rulers. 

There is a singular predilection in man, apparent 
to the careful investigator, to run in, and adhere to, 
grooves of thought, with a persistent ignoring of all 
adverse facts. This trait is intensified by early ed- 
ucation, and is apparent in the persistent adherence 
to the religion in which the individual has been 
trained. If he was born of Hindu parents he will 
be a believer in Brahma. If his parents were Jews, 
or Mohammedans, his belief will be fixed in their 
faith, while if the belief of his compeers is Christian, 

XXV 



Mutvoirurtiou 

he will adhere tenaciously to that faith. Fortu- 
nately for the advancement of the world, some 
men are endowed with an unconquerable spirit of 
investigation that bursts the bonds of theological 
prohibition, and in the face of torture and death pro- 
claim the tenets they believe founded in fact. As 
the world grows wiser, the barriers against knowl- 
edge are reduced, which by the Jewish legend was 
the unpardonable sin that all mankind were cursed 
for, until at the present time it is not generally penal 
among the most enlightened nations to declare any 
proposition that the propounder believes. No 
greater proof can be adduced to show the utter un- 
reliability of the ancient legends relating abnormal 
supernatural and miraculous events, than the readi- 
ness of men and women of recent times, up to the 
present day, to follow after and believe in charlatans 
and impostors of questionable character and stupid 
pretence, under the guise of divine inspiration and 
plenary revelation. Men are so anxious to hear from 
the other world they have been taught to believe in, 
that they will run after and follow any pretended 
messenger that assumes to bring tidings therefrom, 
the truth of which these impostors know their credu- 
lous neophytes have no power to refute. It is sad to 
note that the fundamental belief of all the various 
xxvi 



Knttoirttttfon 

sectarists of the Christian Church, dominating the 
highest civilization, furnishes the most potent argu- 
ment to sustain the pretenders to supernatural rev- 
elation ; for it is clear that if any supernatural revela- 
tion, plenary inspiration, or other miraculous event 
or communication was ever vouchsafed to man there 
can be no denial that such an event is not only pos- 
sible, but very probable, in a cultivated age more 
capable of appreciating it than in former times. One 
of the strongest reasons for doubting the truthful- 
ness of all historic relations of supernatural events 
or revelations is their utterly unprovable existence 
in modern times, notwithstanding the positive as- 
sertion of innumerable witnesses that are willing to 
testify, and in some cases may believe in miraculous 
events now taking place. 



XXVll 



Contents 



I. Early Religions .... 

II. The God of the Old Testament 

III. Christ's Advent and Mission 

IV. Christ's Character and Parables 
V. Christ's Miracles and Resurrection 

VI. The Sermon on the Mount 

VII. The Christian Religion —John's Gos 

pel 

VIII. Christian Doctrine and Rule . 

IX. The Christian Dogmas . 

X. Christianity Compared 

XI. " Revelations " 

XII. Miracles .... 

XIII. Our Present Knowledge 

XIV. Our Present Status 

XV. Recapitulation 

XVI. The Genesis of Christianity 

XVII. The Status of Human Attainment 

XVIII. Man's Present Status . 

Appendix 



3i 

56 

98 

122 

132 

144 

151 
172 
196 
209 
223 
230 
240 
247 
254 
267 
278 
287 
295 



The Origin of 
Supernatural Conceptions 



CHAPTER I. 

EARLY RELIGIONS 

When prehistoric man emerges from the nebulous 
epoch and first appears in tangible form to the mod- 
ern investigator, he is found surrounded by works 
of elaborate art, in some particulars transcending 
all the works of his successors in magnitude and 
accomplishment. This shows a state of high cul- 
tivation, that must have required untold ages to 
have perfected. In critically examining these po- 
tent remains of early attainments, aided by the re- 
corded thought of primitive culture, we note an 
elaborate perception and investigation of nature 
with which the world teemed. 

Modern investigation shows that there were upon 
the earth hundreds of centuries ago monsters of pro- 
digious size and hideous mien, many of which have 
been recently unearthed. While some of these prod- 

3i 



&f)t ©rtflfn of 

igies may not have survived the advent of man, he, 
no doubt, gained his vivid pictures of the horrible 
and awful from the realities he saw in nature. The 
dragons and other apparent prodigies drawn by 
Eastern nations were but exaggerations pictured 
by imaginative minds excited by the marvels exist- 
ent at the dawn of man's ingress, which may have 
disappeared since that time. 

Ages prior to any record that we have of men con- 
gregated into communities they were governed by 
matured laws, and ideas of right and wrong, of good 
and evil, with a subserviency to ruling powers. 
Their laws were at that early period united with 
elaborate religious dogmas, upon which authority 
was founded ; thus, the free thought of man had be- 
gun to be subordinated to creeds and traditions that 
have shackled and curtailed man's progress through- 
out historic time. 

In searching for the origin of the innumerable re- 
ligious beliefs of the world, which ages have formu- 
lated and consolidated into habits, and modes of 
thought, that have crystallized into the usages of 
advancing civilization with cultured people, an in- 
vestigator should be sure that an antagonism to 
existing creeds is based on an honest and sincere 
desire to attain a higher civilization, and sounder 

32 



Sttiiertiatttval Qonttptiom 

moral culture, than the present status affords. 
While sweeping away fictitious cults, believed in 
for ages, he should have in mind the attainment 
of the highest standard in morals, and the greatest 
happiness of all his fellow men. When a man 
attempts to change the current of thought and 
belief of the world he is surrounded by, with all 
its vested rights and interests at stake, which to- 
day form most potent factors in modern society, 
the task is of Herculean proportions. But the truth 
is cogent, above all other interests or assumed 
rights, however ancient or consolidated, built upon 
fictitious foundations. 

In looking backward through the maze of primi- 
tive thought for a rational clue to the earlier stages 
in the evolution of man's mental efforts, beyond the 
limits of scientific proof, it may be permissible 
to extend our theories into the unknown, if we are 
guided by logical deductions from the storehouse 
of accumulated facts, that are attested by a strictly 
scientific investigation of known phenomena — 
with the distinct understanding, however, that 
every assumption may be controverted by a better 
theory, if it can be adduced. 

It would seem from the generally received laws 
of evolution, that when the mental powers of man 

33 



ffii)fr ©Viflftl Of 

had developed into thoughts and observations of, 
and deductions from, his surroundings, he would 
realize the fact that the numerous natural objects 
of his cognizance were there by no cause within 
his knowledge; from them he received his food 
and, as he progressed, his shelter; they were avail- 
able to supply his wants. Could the intellect of 
man as now recognized long remain satisfied with 
a passive reception of those goods — when by their 
failures he suffered — without striving to find out, 
or account for, their origin and source? The low- 
est mental effort would suggest there was a power 
beyond his cognition. 

If this interpretation of the earliest denouement 
of the active brain of developed man is correct, 
no abnormal power is manifested in the poetical 
legends, and historical aberrations evolved by the 
imagination inherent in the human mind from a 
misconception or distortion of facts. 

In early childhood we have examples of the con- 
structive power of the imagination, and brave tales 
are evolved from fertile sources of child lore, of 
which nursery rhymes are but an adulterated echo. 
The primitive man had all the imagination of 
childhood, with maturer mind, unrestricted by 
modern culture. 

34 



As various objects appeared spontaneously, with- 
out man's effort, it was obviously natural for him 
to assume a being existed that produced them; 
and as it was natural for him to assume that they 
were created for his good, it seems to be indisputa- 
able that he would seek to propitiate the unknown 
power that made them. As these objects were 
so various and distinct one from another, and as 
his enemies were supplied with them as well as 
himself, it would seem impossible for him to be- 
lieve they were all produced by the same Deity; 
therefore, his imagination readily supplied a host 
sufficient for the purpose. Hence we find in the 
earliest records the notable phenomena of nature 
personified and deified. 

In the earliest Hindu Vedas we can trace the 
sublime conceptions of nature, causing, govern- 
ing, and directing the objects provided, in accord- 
ance with a seemingly ungoverned will in the author 
that appeared capricious and anomalous. Thus 
were noted devastating winds, storms, thunders, 
earthquakes, volcanoes; to terrify man for his 
assumed transgressions; sometimes to avenge him 
against his enemies; and as menaces against the 
human race for its derelictions. Such were the 
aspects of nature to primitive man, sublime and 

35 



©D* ©ttfltn of 

beneficent, or terrific and vengeful; personified 
by fatherly care and paternal love, or stern and 
unrelenting punishment, to suit the varying moods 
of the gods. 

By the every- day experiences of life man was 
confirmed in the belief of an extraneous power 
that produced the varied results so constantly wit- 
nessed by him. This caused him to ponder and 
construct, in his imagination, ideal gods, of a nature 
and with attributes analogous to the human race. 

As man's gregarious experience taught him to 
propitiate the most powerful — a trait common 
with all gregarious animals — he strove to placate 
the unseen deity he could not cope with, which his 
imagination had wrought into innumerable forms, 
with attributes still more innumerable; while na- 
ture's laws, acquired either by experience or innate 
mental reasoning, caused him to organize a world 
of spirits dominated by a supreme head, or God, — 
a belief that has assumed control over the thoughts 
and convictions of mankind in an endless variety 
of forms, in striving to delineate the unknowable, 
up to the present day, and which is as firmly ad- 
hered to now as it was at the beginning of historic 
time, with the assumed authority of supernatural 
revelation. 

36 



Supernatural <&$nttptiimu 

Thus at the dawn of human association the 
organized communities, as appears from the ear- 
liest records now extant, were striving for the un- 
known origin of themselves and their surroundings 
which caused them to build up vague theories of 
antecedent powers that brought forth the various 
objects with which they were associated, — things 
not made by any power known to them. Thus 
gods were elaborated with characteristics in accord- 
ance with human experience, observation, and im- 
aginings, formed by the untutored minds of the 
authors, with attributes to suit the multiplex phe- 
nomena noted. 

The earliest records of human thought describe 
the origin of man, whose mind not being controlled 
by laws or facts, wandered ad libitum without re- 
straint. Thus was conceived a spirit world, whose 
habitat was above the immovable world we inhabit, 
devoted to the gods who made them. These gods 
being invisible were described and represented 
with minuteness. None of the legends or sacred 
writings that are claimed to be revelations, which 
give a history of the origin of the world and its in- 
habitants, with the heavens located above the ' ( fir- 
mament," agree with the known facts of nature; 
which proves that those assumed revelations were 

37 



mere human inventions, by authors ignorant of 
the cosmos now undisputed. 

In tracing the course of progressive thinking, 
from the dawn of nebulous history to the present 
time, the earliest recorded conceptions show a 
belief in the existence of a superior power by whom 
mankind was dominated, and rewarded as ac- 
corded with its supreme ungoverned will, or pun- 
ished, if not averted by the prayers and supplica- 
tions of its worshippers, who could thus modify 
its purpose. 

At first the god seems to have been limited to 
the individual or the family, originating the fetishes, 
which were not the gods of other people. Subse- 
quently clannishness elevated the tribal deity above 
those of other tribes, which was a fruitful source 
of many wars and much strife between contending 
nations, waged to determine their assumptive claims 
to territory and power. Finally the multiplicity 
of gods came to be a source of sublime incentive 
and art motive, with a ruling godhead over all, 
in accordance with established human institutions. 

Thus was the household god of primitive man 
expanded by his creative imagination into complex 
mythologies, that gradually culminated in a su- 
preme creator. Such was, apparently, the evo- 

38 



lutionary source and development of human im- 
pulse to worship. 

The pertinent saying that ' ' an honest God would 
be the noblest work of man" has never been ac- 
complished; all the gods yet portrayed are mani- 
festly the imperfect conceptions of man; they are 
simply the embodiment of the highest compre- 
hension of the age in which they were delineated. 
The constant endeavor of man has been to formu- 
late and materialize an originator of the world and 
its concomitants, who was the author of his being. 

The multitudinous nations that peopled the 
Eastern world were fruitful in creating systems of 
belief in gods and religious creeds, derived gen- 
erally as we have said from natural objects, and 
the observation of inherent phenomena, more or 
less etherealized, but all resting on the assumption 
that the earth was the stable centre of the visible 
universe. 

The records we now have of the earliest thought 
are probably the Hindu Vedas. They are a re- 
fined spiritual sentimentality, not exceeded in after- 
time. Their aim was to teach men to live a pure 
and blameless life, and by austerity and self-denial 
to attain perfect happiness hereafter. A God, 
the creator of all things, was formulated, who as- 

39 



Z$t (Bviain of 

sumed various incarnations, and there were other 
divinities who enacted innumerable spiritualistic 
parts, in aid or punishment of humanity. The 
civilization in which this religion culminated was 
dominated by a priesthood, who taught its superi- 
ority over all others, and inaugurated the doctrine 
of castes with which Hindustan is cursed to the 
present day. This religion predominated India, 
whose wonderful temples — the remains of which 
are still standing — dwarf all modern religious 
structures, and even now display a grandeur unap- 
proached in modern times. The temples through- 
out India are as numerous as their religious dog- 
mas, the metaphysical character of which we do 
not propose to discuss. Many of their legends 
have been plagiarized and adopted with modifica- 
tions by subsequent religions down to the present 
day, together with their moral teachings. 

Succeeding the teachings of the Vedas came the 
doctrine of Buddha, abolishing the castes, and in 
many other ways improving the religion of his 
followers. Buddha taught an equality of the hu- 
man race, and controverted many objectionable 
features of Brahmanism; he taught self-abnega- 
tion, a pure life, and self-immolation, with an un- 
natural abstention from all natural impulses, much 

40 



Sttjiemattttal Conceptions 

of which has been practised by other religious dev- 
otees in after-times. 

The Egyptian mythology was developed into a 
highly supernatural and metaphysical religion; 
evolving a strict moral code, that exalted good- 
ness and purity in this life — a record being kept 
of each individual, to be brought forth at the judg- 
ment of the deceased, to determine his future re- 
ward or punishment. 

The 125th chapter of the "Book of the Dead" 
contains the oldest code of private and public mo- 
rality. The catalogue of forty-two sins for which 
punishment is prescribed furnishes an example 
of moral discrimination and high purpose quite as 
cogent as is found in any subsequent religions. 

It is understood by eminent scholars that the 
Egyptian religion is monotheistic, and that the 
multiplicity of gods is only due to the personifica- 
tion of his attributes and offices. M. Emmanuel 
Rouge, a profound Egyptologist, says: "No one 
has called in question the fundamental meaning 
of the principal passages by the help of which we 
are able to establish what ancient Egypt has taught 
concerning God, the world, and man. I said God, 
not Gods, is the Unity most energetically expressed ; 
God, One, Sole and Only; no others with him — 

41 



Z$t ©tiflin of 

he is the only being — living in truth — thou art 
One and millions of beings proceed from thee — 
he has made everything, and he alone has not been 
made." "The clearest, the simplest, the most 
precise conception." He adds: "How reconcile 
the unity of God with the Egyptian polytheism. 
History and geography will perhaps elucidate the 
matter. The Egyptian religion comprehends a 
quantity of local worships. The Egypt which 
Menes brought together under his sceptre was 
divided into nomes, each having a capital town; 
each of these regimes had its principal god desig- 
nated by a special name, but always the same doc- 
trine which reappears under a different name. 
One idea predominates, that of a single primeval 
God. Everywhere and always it is one substance, 
self- existent, and an unapproachable God." 

The drawings, inscriptions, and papyrus manu- 
scripts of Egypt, brought to light in recent years 
by modern investigation, display deep research 
of the human mind in its inquest for truth, joined 
to a priestly desire for controlling the people, which 
all history shows to be intuitive. 

The casual instances of abnormal intellect, as 
well as any other characteristics that have aston- 
ished the world from time to time by a display of 

42 



Supernatural conceptions 

profound knowledge and wisdom which seemed 
superhuman ; the creation of the demigods, prophets, 
and giants, exaggerated by tradition and imagina- 
tion to account for the unknown, plunged in the 
oblivion of antiquity were fruitful agents; the out- 
come of this resulted in the mythologies that have 
been developed in every aggregation of men, how- 
ever barbarous, antique, or anomalous their leg- 
ends. 

The Greek and Roman mythologies, in their ef- 
fort to create a higher mental elevation, elaborated 
complex and poetical systems that raised high art 
and poetry to an excellence hardly yet attained 
in later times. The Greek sages reasoned with 
profound sagacity on physical truths and mental 
culture, with a keen perception almost prophetic. 
Pythagoras, some six hundred years before our 
era, declared God to be "neither the object of 
sense, nor subject to passion; invincible, who is 
not, as some are apt to imagine, seated above the 
world, but being himself all in all, he sees all beings 
that fill his immensity." Such was the advanced 
teaching of Pythagoras, who inculcated a daily 
investigation of our life and actions as a source of 
improvement, which equals the sublimest teaching 
of the foremost moralists. 

43 



2Tfie ©trifltn of 

Confucius, some six hundred years before Christ, 
announced the aphorism, "Do unto another that 
you would he should do unto you ; and do not unto 
another what you would not should be done unto 
you; this is the foundation and principle of all 
laws." 

There are many ancient maxims showing a like 
high attainment in morals set forth in the earliest 
records, the fruits of man's mental processes, that 
have not been excelled by any subsequent teach- 
ings. They show the spontaneous outcome of 
mind with its surroundings, aided by observation, 
contemplation, and experience. To enhance the 
authority of these sayings they were sometimes 
attributed to divine revelation, while they were 
often commingled with egoistic impulses and su- 
perstitions, coupled with an intolerant desire to 
extirpate adverse views in others, which led to 
barbarous acts such as no other cause ever produced, 
and from which men are now only partly freed 
through the heroic warfare of modern science, 
unaided by religion, which has burst the shackles 
of restraining theology and antagonizing dogma. 

The world has teemed from earliest times with 
divers religions, each one asserting its claim to a 
divine revelation, with miracles and divine com- 

44 



mands as its origin. Most of these religions are 
subdivided into numerous sects, often differing 
widely, and as bitterly opposed to each other as 
to antagonistic religions. From earliest times 
creeds have been the cause of contention and bloody 
wars between rival sects, with virulent anathemas 
and persecutions for deviations from the current 
belief which have not been exceeded, if they have 
been equalled, by any other incentive in the world's 
history. 

It is apparent there is no undisputed infallible 
proof of the truth of any religion; they are all de- 
veloped from legends more or less fabulous, or of 
events assumed to be of supernatural origin, in 
which the marvellous phenomena described an- 
tagonize all the natural laws of the universe that 
are now clearly established by the research of 
modern science. 

There is no axiom truer, than that every aver- 
ment claiming to be a divine revelation, or the 
word of God, must be in accordance with and in 
no particular contravene the immutable laws of 
nature, or the invariable course of the universe, 
of which the ancients were entirely ignorant, but 
which are now within the knowledge of every school- 
boy. Has there ever been a religion promulgated 

45 



ffiijt Attain of 

that can survive that test? Is there not ample 
evidence that the originators of all existing relig- 
ions, as well as those they have superseded, were 
totally ignorant of the cosmology developed by 
modern investigation? 

A search into ancient traditions for the purpose 
of ascertaining the mental culture of their authors 
is interesting and instructive; but to adopt their 
legends as facts would be credulous, while to give 
their records of miraculous events an authorita- 
tive meaning, in the light of present knowledge, 
is mendacious. Modern theologians promulgate 
ancient religious dogmas and creeds with the as- 
sumption that they were derived from a super- 
natural source (as if the ancients had some foun- 
tain containing a knowledge, of which the later 
and better informed ages are deprived), and that 
these teachings by divine revelation transcend 
modern science, and have achieved for man what 
science is unable to do, proposing to impart to him 
an assurance of future existence, while they are 
shown to be totally ignorant of the status of the 
present one; yet men still cling to the conception 
of a future life, based on some crude and notably 
erroneous narratives on which to rest their faith, 
regardless of ascertained fact. 

46 



Supernatural QonttptiOM 

The investigation of ancient legends displaying 
human thought, by which we can trace man's slow 
progress toward true knowledge (the light of which 
is just beginning to dawn on us), is intensely inter- 
esting; but to receive such a record as a divine 
revelation is fallacious. Every fact, and every 
legend, from whatever source it comes, should be 
analyzed by the light of present knowledge. 

Many systems of obsolete belief have left won- 
derful monuments of massive grandeur that dis- 
play the earnest faith of their devotees in the deity 
and religion they were built to perpetuate; they 
far exceed in magnitude, grandeur, and magnifi- 
cence all the efforts of modern times. 

At Ellora, in Central India, is located a mar- 
vellous group of grotto temples that well illustrate 
the intense religious ardor of their originators. 
These excavations are hewn in a chain of moun- 
tains within a circuit of six miles. There are many 
large temples with occasional smaller ones between 
them, all hewn from the solid rock, a hard red 
granite, with primitive tools and the patient labor 
of that early time. The largest of these structures 
is called Kailasa (Siva's Paradise). It is a hun- 
dred feet high and 142 feet long. On each side 
of the colonnades at the entrance are large sphinxes. 

47 



A row of enormous elephants seems to sustain the 
superimposed rock and produces an awe-inspir- 
ing effect. The extent and number of these exca- 
vated works can hardly be imagined, — entire 
pyramidal temples standing in open courts, peri- 
styles, staircases, bridges, chapels, porticoes, obe- 
lisks, columns, tanks, and a great number of co- 
lossal statues ten and twelve feet high. At the 
sides of the temples there are chambers, appar- 
ently for the priests, cut out of the solid rock, en- 
closures surrounded by columns sustain three gal- 
leries, one above another. 

There are an immense number of small grottoes 
seemingly intended to accommodate thousands of 
pilgrims. On some of the walls are Sanscrit in- 
scriptions, and all the surfaces, including the col- 
umns, are covered with sculptures, some of which 
are painted in bright colors still visible. Travel- 
lers declare "the variety, richness, and skill dis- 
played in these ornaments surpass all description." 
Erskine says "the first view of this desolate relig- 
ious city is grand and striking, but melancholy. 
The number and magnificence of the subterra- 
nean temples, the extent and loftiness of some, the 
endlessness and diversity of sculpture in others, 
the variety of curious foliage, of minute tracery, 

48 



Supernatural Conceptions 

highly wrought pillars, rich mythological designs, 
sacred shrines, and colossal statues astonish and 
distract the mind. The empire whose pride they 
must have been has passed away, and left no other 
memorial behind it." This shows that advancing 
knowledge begins to realize the folly of attempting 
to perpetuate any dogmatic religion, which must 
be temporary and fugacious, by colossal struc- 
tures. In this particular the world will grow wiser, 
notwithstanding the fanatical fervor of the mod- 
ern idolaters who would again curse the world with 
theological rule. 

Ponderous temples representing bygone relig- 
ions are of less account than formerly; they are 
not needed for imposing primitive worship, with 
its majestic processions and mystic rites, that have 
lost their significance with people more advanced, 
who cannot be so easily duped by pompous cere- 
mony. 

The intellectual world now generally under- 
stands that in the order of creation there has been 
a slow but constant development in organized life, 
from protoplasm to man; and pari passu with the 
advancement of structure there has been a pro- 
gression of intelligence. This advancement can 
be traced from the most feeble indication of respon- 

49 



ED* dbvisiu of 

sive sensation up to the ever varying and con- 
stantly increasing perfection of defined and cor- 
rect thought attained by man. It is to be noted 
that this advancement follows the acquisition of 
a knowledge of undeviating natural laws, which 
produces a more perfect development of thought 
as structural perfection increases. 

While the progress of mental expansion is thus 
traceable, no cataclysm is found in its history; 
no period is found in which any race or people 
has been suddenly advanced from barbarism, or 
a low degree of civilization, to a high perception 
of right and wrong, by a new religion. In the in- 
tercourse of man with his fellow man, no abrupt 
development has been achieved in consequence 
of belief in any religion or dogma taught by a su- 
pernatural guide. When any rapid change in re- 
ligion has been effected, it has been done by coer- 
cion, or an unreasoning faith that shows a singular 
tendency in the human mind to follow the pre- 
tended seers of the unknowable. The neophytes 
have rarely improved their morals with their ac- 
ceptance of a creed; all real advancement is a 
slow process of the reasoning powers, almost im- 
perceptible, requiring mental effort and education. 

New truths are received by mankind with re- 
5° 



Supernatural Groucqrttoua 

luctance, which arises from a pertinacity engendered 
by early training, that often takes centuries to re- 
move after the facts have been proved by scientific 
investigation; while a new religion, however fan- 
tastic, that claims to be of spiritual and supernat- 
ural origin, which treats of an unknown world, 
with divine promises of a happy future life, is fol- 
lowed with eager belief by unreasoning multitudes. 

This predisposition to superstition, religious and 
political leaders avail themselves of, by confirm- 
ing the doubting, and exalting the mystical. Either 
from a fear of disturbing the present order of so- 
ciety, to the detriment of vested interests and leg- 
islative enactments, or for venal and selfish pur- 
poses, they succeed in misleading the credulous 
and in retaining power. 

The more extensive a research into the religions 
elaborated by man is made, from the earliest times 
to the present, the clearer the certainty appears, 
that no comprehensible fact was ever attained by 
him that was not entirely within the compass of 
his mental reasoning powers, which required no 
revelation from superhuman intelligence or other 
abnormal source. It is apparent on critical in- 
vestigation, that the world we live in, and the in- 
finity of orbs we are surrounded by, were not de- 

5 1 



JCfje ©rfflfn of 

signed for man alone, who is but an incident in 
the multiplicity of living entities, — highest and 
most perfect on this sphere, — but not controlling 
the independent existences with which this world 
teems, and with which the universe is probably 
rilled, that have no dependence on man's advent 
or status. 

The preceding sketch of the advent of man clearly 
shows certain indubitable facts from which subse- 
quent events can be interpreted. We learn since 
the development of man in his present stage of 
mentality that great nations were aggregated, with 
laws and moral codes in accordance with their 
views, under which they were organized. The 
Chinese claim an antiquity of some ten thousand 
years, their tradition beginning with a mythic fable 
of a derivation from the gods. Their subsequent 
development was enriched with philosophical rea- 
soning culminating in the profound teacher Con- 
fucius, who gave to the world the golden rule of 
strict equity by man to his fellow man. The Chi- 
nese were a highly civilized nation when Europe 
was in a state of barbarism. 

In the populous territory of India a sect sprang 
up which spread with unexampled rapidity, originat- 
ing in the teachings of an ascetic, Buddha, which 

52 



Supernatural eoiutytioti* 

was embraced by a larger number of people than 
any other religion extant, and at the present day, 
according to Prof. Max Muller, it is probably em- 
braced by four hundred and fifty millions, or one- 
third of the human race. This religion, a detail of 
which we shall give hereafter, was promulgated 
more than five hundred years B. c. It was preceded 
by the Brahmanical faith that is still retained in 
India by hosts of followers. These religions were 
believed to have been inspired miraculously with 
innumerable spiritual manifestations of their foun- 
der, whose writings were believed to be inspired. 

In an age of which we have no certain history, a 
great nation was organized in Egypt, the remains of 
whose temples and tombs still astonish the world by 
their extent and grandeur ; fortunately much of their 
written history has been preserved, from which we 
learn the religion and moral teaching of that ancient 
people, that has become extinct in modern times, 
leaving only the monuments of its wonderful civili- 
zation to succeeding ages. In later times we have 
the Greek mythology, with its poetical anthology, 
and the Roman gods and goddesses with which our 
classical literature is filled. 

The indisputable historical facts show us that the 
human race attained its present status and has been 

S3 



indefinitely prolonged prior to historic time, which 
modern investigation shows us has been extended 
by a progression of evolution through unknown 
myriads of years; and that from the earliest times 
of which we have any trace the fully developed mind 
of man has been striving to find out the origin of 
creation, and the purpose of its existence. As these 
questions were unanswerable, man's creative imagi- 
nation began to formulate a first cause or causes, to 
account for the tangible creation visible to him, 
which has naturally resulted in the multiplicity of 
dogmas that the subtle brain of man developed from 
his varied contact with nature; hence the multitudi- 
nous sects were elaborated with which man strove 
to elucidate the unknown. 

We have no clearer knowledge of the purpose of 
this wonderful creation (so complete from beyond 
microscopic minuteness to the unfathomable count- 
less systems of spheres) than man had at the begin- 
ning of history ; nor is it probable we will ever attain 
an exposition of it in this world. The beginning and 
end of time, of space, or matter, are equally beyond 
man's perception. There is no term more flip- 
pantly bandied by theologians and others than eter- 
nity, a correct conception of which is entirely be- 
yond the capabilities of the human mind, yet a 

54 



Supernatural <&onttptiom 

knowledge of its purport is claimed by most 
religions. 

Passing over further details of the primitive aber- 
rations of religious thought and action, with which 
the world's literature abounds, we will direct our 
succeeding investigations to the study of Jewish the- 
ology and the Christian religion now dominant in 
Europe and America, in which we propose to enter 
into greater details, as they control the religious be- 
lief of those nations in which the greatest advance 
has been made in a knowledge of creation, a knowl- 
edge attained by the successful war which science 
has achieved against religious dogma that is now 
struggling to reconcile itself with scientific truth to 
retain the prestige which its dogmatists heretofore 
strenuously repudiated. 



55 



arjje ©rffliti of 



CHAPTER II. 

THE GOD OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 

The Jews were descendants of a nomadic race 
that finally settled in Canaan, after driving out its 
inhabitants, with great slaughter and cruelty toward 
those whom they dispossessed. This tribe assumed 
to have been held in servile bondage by the King of 
Egypt, from whom they escaped, and led an itiner- 
ant life without apparent purpose for many years. 
They were a turbulent race, as appears from their 
record, sometimes worshipping the God of Moses, 
and at other times repudiating him. They traversed 
desert countries and became a warlike people. Fi- 
nally they emerged from the wilderness, and after 
spying out the coveted land of Canaan, they took 
possession of it under the dubious claim of a gift 
from their God to their progenitor Abraham. 

They consolidated and became a kingdom; and 
by the theological teachings of their prophets they 
lauded their God above those of other nations, al- 

56 



though they did not deny the existence of them. In 
their traditions they were God's chosen people, es- 
pecially favored by him above all other nations. 
Their Scriptures, as they come down to us, were com- 
piled, or written from traditions, after their return 
from captivity in Babylon. They claimed descent 
from Abraham, who was a nomad belonging to one 
of the minor tribes of Asia, of which nothing is re- 
corded showing any peculiar enlightenment, or a 
connection with the more civilized and prominent 
nations; no apparent superiority or special reason 
is given why Abraham should have been selected by 
God as his chosen favorite above all other people, 
whose descendants he promised to make a dominant 
nation. The Jews finally sublimated their God as 
the Creator of heaven and earth, with attributes like 
those described in the Babylonian legends and 
myths of other Eastern nations. 

The Jews were never a dominant nation, and 
were at last conquered by the Babylonians, by whom 
they were held captive for many years. Their rela- 
tions with their captors were intimate, with full op- 
portunity to become familiar with their literature 
and sacred legends. On their return from captivity 
Ezra gathered the traditions of his people and com- 
piled their history. In those annals the legends of 

57 



&t}t #riflin of 

their captors are largely interpolated, and modified 
to harmonize with their own traditions. 

Among the earlier conceptions of creation on rec- 
ord, brought to light by research in modern times, 
are those deciphered from Babylonian and Assyrian 
tablets, in which is found a description of the creation 
from which the accounts in Genesis were evidently 
drawn. These were attributed to Moses, who, as 
has been conclusively proved by modern investiga- 
tion, was not their author. With these facts before 
us much light is thrown on the other books of the Old 
Testament, as a traditional compilation from un- 
written legends. The precepts, laws, and usages set 
forth in them are primitive, and not above the teach- 
ings of uninspired sages in earliest times ; their mun- 
dane origin is clearly proved by their dereliction from 
the established facts of the known imiverse. 

In a recently published work by a learned theolo- 
gian, the Rev. Elwood Worcester, D. D., entitled 
"The Book of Genesis in the Light of Modern 
Knowledge,' ' he thus frankly writes: "As regards 
the Book of Genesis, the general result of a century 's 
work is something like this : Moses is not believed 
to be the author of the Pentateuch ; the Pentateuch 
is not the composition of any one man, nor of any 
one time. It does not, however, consist of a number 



of fragments thrown together haphazard, but of three 
or four separate compositions, well denned and for 
the most part easy to detach from one another, which 
run through the entire Pentateuch and the Book of 
Joshua." He says: "They contain statements that 
so flatly contradict each other, that we are obliged 
to choose one or the other, but cannot take both." 
(Would it not be more rational to reject both?) 

Doctor Worcester says : ' ' The composition by one 
mind is unthinkable, unless the author wrote with 
reckless haste and cared nothing about contradict- 
ing himself half a dozen times in as many lines." 
But what shall be said of the compiler who pub- 
lishes these contradictions as divine teachings? 
Doctor Worcester's version is, that they were good 
stories which the compiler did not wish to spoil by 
correction. Very well for the stories, but fatal to 
their claim as revelations. 

In comparing Genesis to modern thought, he says 
of modern history : ' ' Everything therein occurs in a 
perfectly natural way, and important events are hap- 
pening on purely natural grounds. Such things as 
the immediate interference of God, immediate mes- 
sages from God, prophetic dreams, et cetera, are 
never mentioned. We turn to Genesis, however, 
and feel this difference. There God appears to men 

59 



constantly, under one form or another. He speaks 
to them face to face. He makes clothes for Adam 
and Eve. He appears to Jacob in a dream. He 
curses one man and he blesses another. " This clear- 
headed writer further says: "If a man to-day were 
to write a history of our late war with Spain in the 
style of the Genesis, it would be painful to us in the 
highest degree, and we should set the writer down 
either utterly deluded or as a daring blasphemer." 
" While some may believe God has changed his 
methods," Doctor Worcester says, "the educated 
will find it less easy to believe God has changed so 
much, than to believe man's views have changed. 
What at one time seemed perfectly natural for God 
to do, seems not only on natural grounds improbable, 
but on moral grounds, for God to do to-day. We 
prefer," says Doctor Worcester, "to preserve our 
ideal untarnished by the soiling touch of Genesis." 
Doctor Worcester states plainly that " the stories of 
creation, of Paradise, the story of the fall, of Noah's 
flood, and the Tower of Babel, are myths, and exist 
in the traditions of other nations." He adds, how- 
ever, "The truth does not lie in the supposed fact, 
but in the lessons that are drawn from it." And he 
asks the pertinent question, "What is the Book 
of Genesis ? ' ' adding, strangely, ' ' We all admit, I 

60 



presume, that it is an inspired book! " — a myth, a 
fable, inspired! 

Are we sane — normally perfect mentally — or 
is some organ of the brain possessed by Doctor Wor- 
cester wanting, or atrophied in us, that we cannot 
admit his conclusion logically? A mythic fable, al- 
though believed in for ages as historical and in- 
spired, is to us an untenable proposition. The 
misconception of nature's laws and the known 
order of creation displayed in Genesis has been a 
fruitful subject of explanation, comment, apology, 
and strained interpretation by learned theologians 
and others, to harmonize it with the proved facts 
of modern scientific investigation; but the devia- 
tion of the legend from known truths is too appar- 
ent to be successfully rescued from the category of 
the fabulous. 

This is the foundation upon which the Jewish 
and Christian religions are based ; it is the source of 
Biblical theology that is referred to as divine au- 
thority in the succeeding books of the Bible. In 
those books are found sublime thoughts and moral 
maxims, like those displayed in preceding and con- 
temporary religious records; but the attributes de- 
picted of the Hebrew God display a primitive 
and barbarous character difficult to reconcile with 

61 



the idea of an omnipotent Creator of the uni- 
verse. 

The tradition of the origin of the Jews corre- 
sponds with the character and portrayal of their 
God; with whom the gods of other nations were at 
rivalry and war. After their captivity we note they 
attributed to him the creation of heaven and earth, 
and copied from the Babylonians their legends of 
creation that we have seen in the record of their 
literature, in which is related the six days 1 creation, 
so perspicuously stated that no special pleading 
can claim for it a Hebrew origin, although a vast 
amount of intellect has been expended in trying to 
harmonize this legend with known fact. 

If we carefully analyze Genesis it begins with the 
creation by God. On the first day it is recorded he 
created from chaos the earth, in utter darkness (how 
chaos came to be is not told) ; he also created light 
(from what source is not named ; it certainly was 
not from the sun, which was afterward created). 
He alternated light and darkness into day and night 
(the cause of which is not stated), thus marking 
time, and forming the evening and morning of the 
first day. 1 On the second day he divided the waters 

1 There has been much discussion about the word day in the 
Genesis, but the term is clearly defined in the commandments at- 

62 



Supernatural dtonttptiom 

that covered the earth, by means of a " firmament " 
which separated the waters that were raised up by 
it from those that rested upon the earth. 1 This fir- 
mament God called "heaven;" this was the work 
of the second day. On the third day the waters 
below were gathered into one place, and the dry 
land appeared, which God called the earth ; he also 
created grass, herbs, and fruit-trees. On the fourth 
day, after he had created light, he caused two orbs 
to be placed in the " firmament " (on which the waters 
were supported that were separated from the waters 

tributed to God and given to Moses, to keep the seventh day holy, 
in commemoration of the day on which he rested, after his six 
days' labor. That meaning of the word was never questioned by 
Jew or Christian, until science demonstrated its error. The 
seventh day was observed by the early Christians, until the Em- 
peror Constantine substituted by an edict, a.d. 321, the holy day 
of the sun-worshippers for constrained worship. The edict is as 
follows: " Let all judges and people of the town rest, and all the 
various trades be suspended on the venerable day of the sun. 
Those who live in the country, however, may freely and without 
fault attend to the cultivation of the fields, lest, with the loss of 
favorable opportunity, the commodities offered by Heaven be 
destroyed." (Just, code, III., Tit. 12.) Constantine seems to 
have been more rational than our modern legislators, realizing 
the fact that nature ignores rest on Sunday. From that time 
the Christian world has kept Sunday, ignoring the seventh day. 
1 This description can only mean a fixed canopy, the empyrean, 
bounding a space above the earth, retaining waters, and sustain- 
ing heaven; this was its interpretation until science proved its fal- 
lacy and banished heaven from that location. 

63 



2CJ)t <&xiQin of 

upon the earth) ; one of these orbs was to light the 
day, the other to light the night. 1 On this fourth 
day "he made the stars also" Such is the divine 
revelation of the creation of the infinity of planets, 
each one immeasurably bigger than this earth, the 
formation of which was all accomplished on the 
fourth day, ajter the creation of the earth. 

Five days were expended upon this little orb, 
and a part of one day on the rest of the creation ! 
(Could profound ignorance deviate further from 
the known truth?) Great whales and all the other 
inhabitants of the sea "the water brought forth 
abundantly ; " those and every winged fowl were 
created on the fifth day. On the sixth day God 
made the beasts of the earth and cattle, " and every- 
thing that creepeth upon the earth." And God 
said, "Let us make men in our image, with domin- 
ion over the fish of the sea, fowl of the air, cattle, 
and every creeping thing." 

In God's image man was created, and on the 

, To give light to the world, according to the record, was the 
only purpose the sun and moon were created for. The writer had 
no idea of their comparative magnitude with that of the earth. 
No mention is made of the most vitally important function of the 
sun as the centre of this system, or its heat-giving and vivifying 
power, which are wholly ignored. The sun, according to this 
record, was created after the earth. 

6 4 



Stijietttattttral <&onttptiom 

seventh day God rested from all his work, and he 
blessed the seventh day because he then rested. 

The legend says God made man in his image; 
that is, in his shape and personality; an organized, 
formulated being, like the gods of other nations — 
of Hindustan, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. God 
breathed the breath of life into Adam, and he be- 
came a living man, without gestation or infancy. 1 

After preparing a garden for his habitation, in 
which God planted two trees of forbidden fruit as 
a temptation, and placed Adam therein, he then 
said: "It is not good that man should be alone; I 
will make a helpmeet for him." So he caused a 
deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and purloined a rib 
from him, of which he made a woman, and gave 
her to Adam (no doubt a very happy exchange for 
his rib, the loss of which he did not feel in his sleep). 
At that time they were naked, and so ignorant were 
they that they did not know it ; but, with a natural 
craving for knowledge, they ate the forbidden fruit 
that brought death as a penalty, and were enlight- 
ened. 2 

1 To point out the radical difference between this account of 
the creation and the facts of evolution, is a work of supereroga- 
tion ; science rejects the story as fabulous. 

2 The largest, oldest, and most active body of propagandists 
now in the Christian Church teach that if Adam and Eve had 

65 



The introduction of the serpent to circumvent 
God's command, though graphic, militates against 
his omnipotence, and is clearly mythical. The in- 
comprehensible feature of the incident seems to be 
that God should desire to keep Adam and Eve in an 
ignorance which he signally failed to do. The pun- 
ishment of the serpent was unique: to crawl upon 
his belly all the days of his life. (What the original 
style of his locomotion was does not appear.) If 
the numerous reptiles we now know that move in 
that way are his descendants, we have another in- 
stance of punishment for transmitted sin. This 
fable, as interpreted by theologians, would not be 
worth criticizing, but for the very serious conse- 
quences to man, still believed in, of inherited sin 
for Adam's transgression. "In Adam's fall we 
sinned all," was the doctrine taught, and is not to 



not eaten of the fruit of the tree of knowledge there would have 
been no death in the world and mankind would live forever ! If, 
however, this primitive pair had eaten of the tree of life first, 
they would have escaped that penalty and have lived forever! 
But they neglected their opportunity until God became aware of 
their transgression, and ordered a guard for the tree of life, driv- 
ing Adam and Eve out of the garden where they came so near 
being co-equal with him. Whether the attributes conferred by 
the tree of life would have descended to Adam's progeny as his 
sin did (if he had had any progeny), we leave to the theologians 
to determine. 

66 



Sttjjeruatmral <&<mttptiom 

be doubted with safety by the elect ; it is the unques- 
tioned belief, in the majority of Christian churches. 
To seek for a logical reason for this irrational story, 
which is still taught as the motive for God's irrevo- 
cable decree of death to all mankind, and the raison 
d'etre for Christ's advent, to be believed as an un- 
questionable truth with unquestioning faith by all 
true believers as a requisite for salvation would be 
futile. 

This ancient parable has evidently been mis- 
construed by religionists and theologians. A ra- 
tional interpretation shows that it is an attempt to 
allegorize the advent of generation and its conse- 
quent concomitant death — good and evil — as it 
is called. The parable clearly illustrates the fact 
that in the reproduction of life death must ensue, 
and that the command of God to increase and mul- 
tiply, for which he had especially organized all living 
things, could only be continued by giving to each 
a limited existence. Hence, what is made in the 
parable a transmitted sin was in reality a necessity 
prepared by God's special command; while to ac- 
count for death, deemed an evil and curse, the story 
of the transgression was fabricated, with its con- 
comitant punishment. The unreasoning contra- 
dictions in God's purposes involved had no weight 

6 7 



with the author of the legend, clearly displaying 
its primitive character. 

Passing over the crude, mythical legend of cre- 
ation, with its stories of the Lord walking in the 
garden in the cool of the day, and making gar- 
ments for Adam and Eve, that the tree of knowl- 
edge had not taught them to do; and his sons 
courting the daughters of men (which has since 
exercised the apologists in their effort to prove the 
narrative divine) ; ending in the expulsion of our 
disobedient ancestor, that entailed on modern the- 
ology the dogma of original sin, and its sequent 
a barbarous redemption by blood, a revolting ele- 
ment for purification of a primitive age, we will 
turn to some of the succeeding acts of God, as re- 
corded in the Hebrew Scriptures, where the Noachian 
deluge, drawn from Babylonian records, is described 
with the episode of the bow in the clouds, first 
displayed by God to seal his covenant with Noah, 
as is claimed. To seriously criticize the fable 
would be an act of folly ; it is sufficient to say that 
the deeds there recorded could never have been 
enacted without abrogating the immutable laws 
that govern the universe. Like the story of the 
creation, it was borrowed by the Jews from their 
captors, and has been elaborated in various forms 

68 



Supernatural Conceptions 

by primitive people the world over. It is simply 
an ignorant and erroneous interpretation of mis- 
understood natural phenomena. 

The incomprehensible feature of these records 
is God's favoritism toward certain persons singled 
out from the rest of Noah's descendants, without 
apparent reason, of whom he promised to make 
a dominant nation for all time, whose God he would 
be to the exclusion of all other people, fighting 
against their adversaries. Such is the God of the 
Old Testament, showing Abram to be the first 
of these fondlings, whom he commanded to aban- 
don his kinsfolk and go to the land he would give 
him. 1 

Abram took his kinsman Lot with him, from 
whom he afterward separated; and after numer- 
ous vicissitudes he rescued Lot and the city of 
Sodom, not then accursed, from their enemies. 
When Abram wanted a confirmation of God's 
promises to him, he offered a bloody sacrifice to 
God, and then dreamed a confirmation ; yet Abram 

1 It should be noted that this claim to a divine right of inher- 
itance was written after the Israelites had taken possession of 
the land of Canaan, and driven out its prior inhabitants, of whose 
possessions they robbed them. The Jewish raiders claimed God 
gave to their father Abraham this land, with the promise to 
make Abraham's seed as the dust of the earth, innumerable. 

6 9 



W§t <©rf gin of 

had to leave the land thus given to him, never to 
return, and went into Egypt. There he was guilty 
of deception and falsehood, which eventuated in 
his becoming rich. This showed characteristics 
that descended to his posterity in after-time. 

The morals of Abram could hardly escape cen- 
sure from the criminal or ethical code of modern 
civilization. His treatment of Hagar would not 
now be approved even in God's favorite ; although 
at that time it seemed to impart immunity to the 
elect in the transgression of every moral law. 

Of this doctrine the Scotch Covenanters availed 
themselves, well illustrated in "Holy Willie's 
Prayer." God declared Abram perfect, and called 
him Abraham in token thereof, binding himself 
by covenant to Abraham and his seed after him, 
giving to him and his seed the land of Canaan for 
an everlasting possession, with a promise to be 
their God, to aid them against all men. (The 
world can now judge how far this promise has been 
fulfilled.) The episode of the destruction of Sodom 
so emphasizes the lack of omniscience in Abra- 
ham's guest, as to stamp him quite human and 
very impressible to Abraham's pleading. 

A more vivid picture of a barbaric age than the 
story of Lot can hardly be conceived; yet in very 

70 



&uptvwtuv%l eoiutptious 

recent times it would have been heretical and im- 
pious to advance a doubt of its truth, or that the 
pillar of salt representing Lot's wife was not still 
standing as a record of the truth of the story. Yet 
this man Lot, according to the legend, was an in- 
ebriate sot, who committed incest with his own 
daughters, from the progeny of which nations 
sprang. Such is the story of one of God's elect. 

Isaac, a succeeding elect of the God of the He- 
brews, was, from a human standpoint, far below 
the rule of modern equity. In his old age he was 
misled by the chicanery of Jacob and his mother 
into blessing him, to the detriment of his brother, 
whom Isaac thought he was blessing. It is singu- 
lar that Isaac did not repudiate the fraud and 
stranger still that God should sanction it. 

The hermeneutic theologians declare the ways 
of God to be inscrutable and just, though far above 
our comprehension; yet the omnipotent Ruler 
of the Universe sanctioned what we assume to be 
evil. Thus God was controlled by Isaac's mis- 
take, which he refused to correct, and adopted 
Jacob as his next protege. 

Jacob's vision of a communication with heaven 
above by a ladder was based on the assumption 
that the earth was stationary, and heaven located 

7 1 



above it, the common idea of that age, which mod- 
ern science has dispelled. Jacob practised his sub- 
tle course in his dealings with Laban, by whom 
he had been deceived, in which they strove to over- 
reach each other. Jacob, as was to be expected, 
being the favorite of God, succeeded in outwit- 
ing Laban, aided by his wife Rachel, who stole 
her father's gods on leaving him. How Jacob's 
God condoned this is not stated. 

A notable act in Jacob's career was the deceit 
and bad faith enacted against Hamor and his 
people. Hamor made a treaty with the Israelites, 
acting in good faith on his part, showing friendship 
and a desire to fraternize with them; but when 
the Israelites, by their deception, had rendered the 
Hivites noncombatant, they rushed in and mur- 
dered their allies. Such were the chosen people 
of the Israelites' God. 

The next favorite under the special care of 
God was Joseph, who throughout his life had the 
purest record of all God's chosen ones. He passed 
through many trying vicissitudes with strict in- 
tegrity. He was finally made ruler in Egypt, and 
received his father and brethren there, and gave 
them a home. The result of this immigration of 
Jacob's family, after the death of their protector 

72 



Joseph, was a reduction to servile tasks and op- 
pression, until rescued by Moses. The story of 
their deliverance is one of the most contradictory 
and illogical narratives in the Bible. 

God, seeing the affliction of the Israelites in Egypt, 
sent Moses to their rescue. He went reluctantly, 
after much coercion, encouraged by God's turn- 
ing his rod into a serpent. Moses and Aaron went 
to Pharaoh and demanded the release of the Is- 
raelites; but God frankly declared that he would 
harden Pharaoh's heart, that he would not let 
them go. This seems to have been done for no 
apparent purpose but to afford an opportunity of 
displaying God's power to Pharaoh. The demand 
of Moses brought down severer tasks on the Is- 
raelites, with a refusal to let them go, for the Lord 
had hardened Pharaoh's heart that he might mul- 
tiply his " signs and wonders." He tells Moses: 
1 ' Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may 
lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring out the chil- 
dren of Israel with great judgments." When 
Pharaoh asked them to show a miracle, Aaron 
threw down his rod, as God commanded, and it 
became a serpent; but the magicians of Egypt 
threw down their rods and they became serpents, 
proving that the magic of that feat was known to 

73 



them; but although Aaron's rod proved the strong- 
est, the act as a miracle was destroyed. When 
Moses and Aaron again demanded of Pharaoh the 
release of their people, on his refusal they turned 
the waters of Egypt into blood. This miracle the ma- 
gicians readily imitated, showing it was not beyond 
the power of their magic to compass, and was in 
no way miraculous. The next attempt at miracu- 
lous skill was producing frogs. The magicians 
compassed that also, and produced frogs abun- 
dantly. The frogs were probably not a gastro- 
nomic delicacy then in Egypt, but a nuisance, so 
Pharaoh agreed to let the Israelites go; but when 
the frogs disappeared, Pharaoh, by God's direc- 
tion, revoked his promise. 

The next plague was lice and then flies infest- 
ing the land of Egypt. The art of the magicians 
could not descend to the production of these pes- 
tiferous vermin, so Pharaoh consented to let the 
Israelites go. But God had not done showing 
his "signs and wonders" to Pharaoh; so he made 
him still retain the Israelites through another series 
of miracles, terminating in the destruction of the 
first-born throughout all Egypt ! 

We will pause here to investigate these stupendous 
miracles. God commanded Moses to demand of 

74 



Pharaoh the release of the Israelites, while at the 
same time he caused Pharaoh to refuse to eman- 
cipate them, for the purpose, as he frankly avows, 
of displaying his might and power in a series of 
miracles which were transcendently low, barbar- 
ous, and vulgar; culminating in the horrible and 
fiendish destruction of children and animals that had 
in no way offended him, and were without power 
to control or mitigate the decree of Pharaoh, which 
in this case was the decree of God. If a more in- 
iquitous act can be conceived by the most depraved 
imagination, or one of more wanton cruelty and 
injustice, we confess it is beyond our power of im- 
agination. 

When God had finished his display of wonders 
and had executed his vengeance against Pharaoh, 
whom he had caused to retain and oppress the 
Israelites for that purpose, according to this ve- 
racious revelation, he caused Pharaoh to assent 
to the Israelites ' departure. Yet God had not 
finished the exhibition of his marvels, so Pharaoh 
was caused to remain unsubdued by all the plagues 
under which he and his people suffered. This 
gave another opportunity for a display of God's 
power to finish the drama, ending in the destruc- 
tion of Pharaoh's host in the Red Sea. Comment 

75 



JSCJje ©tiffin of 

on this preposterous fable seems unnecessary. To 
any one who cannot see the absurdity and incredi- 
bility of the tale, reasoning is superfluous. It is 
significant that no mention is made in Egyptian, 
or other contemporary record, of any such potent 
event, which could hardly have been omitted if 
it had really occurred. 

The Israelites left Egypt, it is related, after de- 
spoiling, by God's command, their confiding neigh- 
bors, the Egyptians, of their jewelry and other val- 
uables, who inconceivably loaned them without 
mistrust or unfriendly feeling toward their neigh- 
bors, notwithstanding the terrible ordeal they had 
passed through in the Israelites' struggle for free- 
dom. (This betrayal of their friends may have been 
the cause of the pursuit by the Egyptians after the 
Israelites had absconded with the borrowed treas- 
ure.) They wandered in the wilderness, or sparsely 
populated regions, until they grew strong enough 
for more ambitious conquests. When it finally ap- 
peared that they had certain preemption rights in 
Canaan, they proceeded to assert them by making 
unprovoked war on the occupants of that country. 

During the wanderings in the wilderness there 
were, according to the record, many divine inter- 
positions, as God led them by a pillar of fire at night, 

7 6 



and a pillar of cloud by day. Yet, with this visible 
symbol of God's presence constantly before them, 
they were dissatisfied and turbulent, often straying 
after other gods, although assured that their God 
was jealous and vindictive, visiting the sins of the 
fathers upon the third and fourth generation. This 
declaration of vengeance beyond the offender was 
extended to the end of time in the descendants of 
Adam, which is radically different from the code of 
justice among enlightened people of the present 
day. The painful efforts of theologians to harmon- 
ize this crude dogma with modern ethics are pitiable 
and fallacious, as in many other Biblical statements 
contrary to proved facts. 

The denunciations against making graven images 
of other gods, or worshipping them, were terrible 
and emphatic, and the Israelites were under the 
most solemn obligations to refrain from the wor- 
ship of any god but Jehovah ; yet when Moses went 
up to meet God on Mount Sinai, and received the 
table of stone on which the ten commandments 
were written, together with God's verbal instruc- 
tions, as he delayed to come down, people began 
to wonder, and going to the high priest Aaron said : 
1 ' Up, make us gods, for as for this Moses, the man 
that brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot 

77 



&?)* <©*ijjtn of 

not what has become of him." Then Aaron took 
from them their golden jewels, without a protest 
against their infidelity, and, keeping on the popular 
side, he made them a golden calf, which they re- 
ceived from him as the god that had rescued them 
out of the land of Egypt. And he built an altar 
before the new god he had made, and proclaimed 
a feast, at which he offered burnt offerings and 
peace-offerings from the people, saying, "These be 
thy gods, oh, Israeli which have brought thee up 
out of the land oj Egypt" This shows the value the 
[sraelites and their high priest Aaron placed on the 
Jehovah, of which such wonders are related. 

But their transgression was too great for Moses' 
God, who bid him not to interfere, and he would 
consume them in his wrath. But Moses, more pol- 
itic, did interfere, and showed superior acumen, 
notwithstanding the flattering promises held out to 
him of becoming the founder of a nation ; and he be- 
sought the Lord his God to turn from his fierce 
wrath, "and repent of this evil against thy people," 
telling him to remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, 
to whom he had sworn he would multiply their seed 
as the stars of heaven. "And the Lord repented of 
the evil which he thought to do unto his people." 
Then Moses went down and slew about three thou- 

78 



sand men obnoxious to him, as a modified revenge 
on the worshippers of Aaron's golden calf. 

But Aaron, the head and front of the offending, 
and its instigator, escaped punishment. This may 
account for Moses allaying the wrath of God that 
would have jeopardized the life of his brother. 
Moses persuaded God to forgive the rest of the 
people, which included his brother Aaron. The in- 
timacy between the Lord and Moses was phenome- 
nal; he " spake unto Moses face to face, as a man 
speaks unto his friend." This seems to traverse 
the declaration of God when urged by Moses to 
show him his glory. "Thou canst not see my face," 
said God, "for there shall no man see me and live." 
But he offered Moses a compromise, telling him to 
stand upon a rock, and while he passed by he would 
put him in a cleft of the rock, and cover him with 
his hand; "and I will take away mine hand and 
thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not 
be seen." When God came, in accordance with 
this declaration, Moses made haste and bowed his 
head until the Lord had passed, and he then saw 
God's "back parts." Moses built a tabernacle by 
command of his God that was furnished sumptu- 
ously, showing his unlimited control over the people 
and their purses. 

79 



&%t #rffl(n of 

The Israelites wandered many years, according 
to their legends. In following the description of 
their inconsistent, bloody, and barbarous acts, it is 
a relief to the benevolent reader to know that no 
mention is made in the writings of any contempo- 
rary nation of this primitive cruelty recorded in the 
Jewish Scriptures, where the aim seems to be to 
chronicle the marvellous works of their God, and 
exalt him above all others in might, regardless of 
equity or justice. The law under Moses was bar- 
barous and rude, such as a primitive people in their 
condition would be likely to enact of their own un- 
instructed volition; while it is claimed that those 
laws were dictated by command of the God that 
Jews and Christians believe in, as the Creator of 
heaven and earth. How far the characteristics of 
this God have been copied in later times by his wor- 
shippers we leave for their investigation. 

Joshua, the doughty leader of the Israelites in 
despoiling the Canaanites, was appointed by Moses, 
and became ruler over the hosts of Israel. His 
career, described in the Pentateuch, was as mar- 
vellous as that of his predecessor, and was filled 
with the supernatural. Under Joshua, the walls of 
Jericho were thrown down by the blowing of rams' 
horns, although his army compassed the city with 

80 



&u»tvMtux%l Qonttptiom 

the magic number seven times. His next notable 
adventure was the defence of the Gibeonites; on 
which occasion he commanded the sun to stand still, 
1 ' and the sun stood still in the midst of the heavens, 
and hastened not to go down for about a whole 
day," that the Israelites might slaughter their op- 
ponents. The author of Joshua can hardly extol 
him sufficiently, or his command over the heavenly 
bodies. He truly says of that prolonged day, that 
there was no day like it, either before or after it 
(which we can readily believe). And as if realizing 
that his story was incredible, the author adds in 
confirmation, "Is this not written in the book of 
Jasher?" Now all we know of Jasher is a similar 
reference to him in Samuel 2 : 1, 18. Jasher seems 
to need a sponsor as much as the author of Joshua 
to establish his veracity. Although we have no 
knowledge of him except the use of his name as 
authority for this impossible story, which has been 
received as a fact by Jews and Christians down to 
the present day. Perhaps the marvellous story of 
the fall of Jericho came also from Jasher, as that 
certainly needs the proof of cumulative evidence to 
render it probable. 

In what light would the civilized world now con- 
sider the fiendish destruction of a conquered people, 

81 



W§z <&viQiu of 

such as was accomplished by Joshua with the ap- 
proval, and by the command of God ? Yet we have 
heard his acts commended in this civilized age by 
theologians. 

According to the record Joshua fought a war of 
extermination against an unoffending people, to 
rob them of their lands, under the delusive pretence 
of his God's approval. God seems to have been 
on the side of his chosen people, who combined re- 
ligious fanaticism with long training, regardless of 
the equitable rights of others; but the justice and 
morality of the act is more than doubtful, quite be- 
yond the dictates of civilization or the power of 
reason to approve. 

From the utterances of Joshua in his old age, it 
is evident that other gods than that of Israel were 
recognized by him as existent, although he believed 
his God to be the most puissant ; yet in dereliction 
of their prohibitive creed, the Israelites were led 
away to worship the gods of other nations. While 
the prevarication, vacillation, and inconsistencies 
of Israel's God pervade the books of the Old Tes- 
tament, the ignorance of their authors about the 
world's true history precludes the assumption that 
they are vicariously inspired records, and proves 
their unreliable character as divine revelation. 

82 



Supernatural <&ontt»tionu 

These Scriptures undoubtedly contain historical 
facts, just precepts, and truthful maxims, with no- 
table examples of purity and morality, like most of 
the earlier sacred records of other people ; these are 
the accumulation of ages, formulated by the attri- 
tion of contact with the world in social relations; 
they do not exceed their antecedents, and are com- 
mingled with the grossest barbarisms. 

The prophecies of Jeremiah, which were written 
after the events they assumed to have foretold were 
enacted, record the accusations of the Lord against 
the kings and people for their transgressions, espe- 
cially for their worship of other gods, numerous as 
the number of their cities, and he declares a list of 
sins for which they deserve destruction. 

God tells Jeremiah that he will bring Nebuchad- 
nezzar to fight against the Israelites, and he declares 
he will fight with him, with anger, fury, and great 
wrath, without pity or mercy — amiable God ! 

Among the wrongs to be reformed we find " Woe 
unto him that useth his neighbor's service without 
wages, and giveth him not for his work," a broad 
hint to modern capitalists. The prophecies of Jere- 
miah as the word of the Lord excel in the ' ' horrible 
and awful;" they are preposterously bombastic 
with his "roaring" and "howling" fury. The as- 

&3 



Kty <©riflitt of 

sumption that Vs. 5 and 6, Chap. 23, Chap. 31, v. 
22, and Chap. ^: 15 refer to Christ, nothing but 
unreasoning fanaticism could compass; Israel did 
not dwell in safety under him. 

The fact appears to be, beyond all successful 
contradiction, that the God depicted in the Hebrew 
Scriptures was a vacillating, vengeful, barbarous 
creation, delighting in bloody sacrifices. He not 
only allowed, but commanded, most horrible atroci- 
ities in exterminating war, and despoiling nations 
by his chosen people to get possession of their heri- 
tage and lands ; murdering their defenceless women 
and children, and with bestial lust saving the vir- 
gins as spoils. The only pretence for this was a 
gift from God, whom they often neglected to wor- 
ship; who never enlightened, conciliated, or pro- 
tected their victims. But, strangest of all, the Is- 
raelites themselves, with all their God's miracu- 
lous favors showered upon them, and with the 
threat of condign punishment meted out to them 
by the wrath of God if they forsook him, frequently 
repudiated their divine benefactor, in whom they 
apparently placed little reliance, except under 
the stringent control of Moses, or some other po- 
tent ruler to coerce them. Even Aaron, the first 
high priest of their God and consecrated to his 

84 



service, who, as is said, had witnessed all his mira- 
cles in Egypt, where he was an actor, repudiated 
his worship, substituting a golden calf for the idol- 
atrous worship of the people, who rejected their 
God's divinity and the legends glorifying him, to 
worship an idol as their deliverer from Egyptian 
bondage. These nomads paid very doubtful rev- 
erence to the God of Moses, and often ignored him ; 
this would be inconceivable if the wonders told of 
him ever occurred. 

The narrow dogma that all goodness of act and 
thought comes from the direct interposition of 
God, and all evil from a devil, or false god, which 
then seemed specious, we discard, and apprehend 
now that every thought and act of man is of his 
own independent volition, and produces a normal 
result under unvarying law. The God of Moses 
by his barbarity, vacillation, and impulsive acts, 
so frankly recorded of him by that primitive and 
uncultivated people engrossed in superstitions, 
seems to antagonize the conception of an omnis- 
cient being by any sane man not besotted with a 
faith that discards reason and annihilates com- 
mon sense. 

The wars, building of altars, and destruction of 
nations, recorded in the Hebrew Testament, un- 

35 



garnished by the supernatural and divine glamour, 
are not unnatural events, or out of the course of 
human effort and aspiration in an early and uncul- 
tivated age, whose highest attainment was clannish 
devotion. The most noted prophets were shrewd 
tacticians, governing by their power to utilize the 
superstition of their catechumens; this to the un- 
biassed critic is very apparent; their policy was 
sophistical, and, while often denunciatory, it was 
generally used to conciliate or incite their adhe- 
rents to some valiant or desperate act, such as 
Moslem fatalists sometimes display. In certain 
cases of gross wrong they became the champions 
of the right; notably, when Nathan reprimanded 
David, which required some courage, as the mode 
of delivering it evinced. 

The prophecies were generally written after the 
assumed fulfilment of the event, and were often- 
times as ambiguous as a Delphic oracle; they 
have been received with as great faith, and as 
little reason, as were the noted sayings of the 
priestesses of that marvellous shrine. This is not 
so strange when we see at the present day a belief 
in the fulfilment of dreams and prognostications, 
to the wonderment of the superstitious, who ignore 
the facts of science. This tendency of the human 

86 



Supernatural eotuejitlous 

mind is taken advantage of by charlatans and 
pretenders in their various callings, while many 
sincere people are led astray, from misreading nat- 
ural phenomena: this appears in Christian Sci- 
ence, palmistry, reading of character, conversing 
with the dead, and fortune-telling, with which the 
world is teeming. No doubt there is much psy- 
chical and mental knowledge yet in abeyance for 
coming science to analyze and explain, but the 
theories of mystics, Gnostics, theosophists, and 
Mormons are the offspring of mental aberrations 
of the imagination or the delusion of chicanery. 

If the maledictions of Ezekiel are not magnified 
by his mysterious, startling, and very sensational 
vision, the Israelites were abnormally depraved 
and incorrigible, far exceeding the pagan nations 
by which they were surrounded; and what must 
strike the investigator with astonishment is, that 
the sole purpose and interest of the Creator was 
centred in this contumacious nation, for whom 
he sought to destroy the rest of mankind, who were 
— if he was the Creator of all things — his off- 
spring. 

There were so many so-called prophets among 
the Israelites, all of whom, as the times required, 
uttered promises and denunciations, cunningly de- 

87 



acfir ©rtfliti of 

vised to incite the people to action, this had an 
effect on that superstitious nation, and on succeed- 
ing generations of more enlightened people, who 
still believe in their inspiration. But as we grow 
more enlightened these prophecies are losing their 
force; men are not so easily duped by them; yet 
we have monitions now and then that men of credu- 
lous temperament are still influenced by them, al- 
though the unwavering light of science is gradually 
illuminating the world, and dispelling the ancient 
illusions. 

The accumulated wisdom acquired by modern 
research, utilized by ratiocination, and the civiliza- 
tion attained through mental acquirements from 
earlier ages, has been improved and refined by 
human advancement due to natural causes, con- 
stituting the status of modern culture; while a 
belief in the supernatural legends of antiquity has 
generally retarded advancement, by stubborn faith 
in the fabulous chronicles on which men still place 
reliance. 

The story of the God of the Hebrews is handed 
down to modern times with strained and varying 
interpretations, in the effort to harmonize it with 
advancing knowledge and to identify it with the 
unknown cause of the visible creation, although its 

88 



Sufletnatttral Qonttptiom 

authors had no conception of the true origin of the 
universe. This is the God still worshipped as an 
entity. 

The legends composing the Old Testament of 
the Christian Bible we have briefly, and in part 
only, analyzed; it contains many moral maxims, 
aphorisms, precepts, and prophecies, for the guid- 
ance of the Israelites in their worship and social 
relations, to ensure their salvation, similar to teach- 
ings found in all the ancient religions. 

We have only sought to show the mythological 
character of the Jewish God, surrounded by hosts 
of angels and spirits serving him and executing 
his commands, which is in accord with most of 
the earlier religions that personify God as an en- 
tity of a defined form, living in a circumscribed 
heaven, at a fixed place, attended by his servitors. 

When Ezra returned to Jerusalem, after the 
captivity in Babylon, he undertook the restoration 
of the ancient faith of the Israelites. He found 
the priests and people had married with neigh- 
boring nations, and had children by their wives; 
this dereliction from Mosaic law he at once made 
war upon, and forced them to abandon their wives 
and children that were not of God's chosen people, 
who must not be contaminated with Gentile blood. 

89 



&%t ©rifliti of 

This is the teaching of the Old Testament con- 
servators. 

In the foregoing brief epitome of the Jewish 
Scriptures, left by Ezra and others, we have omitted 
many incidents showing the mundane character 
of the God of Israel, as we deem a further illustra- 
tion unnecessary to establish the fact that he should 
be placed in the category of the other mythological 
deities. 

The story related of Samuel as judge in Israel, 
who with reluctance consented to appoint a king 
to supersede his rule; and by divine guidance he 
made an unpropitious choice in Saul for king, 
whose only preeminence seemed to have been his 
stature; Saul was followed by David, "a man after 
God's own heart," whom Saul attempted to kill. 
David in youth was a renowned warrior. His 
distinguishing charasteristic, which ingratiated him 
with God, was an unbounded capacity for wor- 
ship and adulation, exhibited by fanatical hom- 
age. Before he came to the throne he displayed 
many traits of a fanatical, bold, and magnanimous 
warrior; he forbore under strong provocation to 
kill Saul, because he was "the Lord's anointed ;" 
he possessed great power for political intrigue and 
finesse; he killed Goliath and married the king's 

90 



Supernatural <&outtptiouu 

daughter ; he escaped from the king's wrath, and 
avoided killing him when he was in his power. 

David as a warrior pursued a course of slaugh- 
ter, as Joshua had done before him. When liv- 
ing with the Philistines, after flying from Judea, 
he added two wives to his harem, to replace the 
king's daughter, who had been taken from him. 
The story of David, like that of Joshua, might have 
been taken from that nebulous book of Jasher, 
which would account for the superhuman char- 
acter of the record. David was made King of 
Judea by command of God, and King of Israel 
after Saul's death. He was devout, worshipping 
God fantastically, dancing naked before the Ark. 
He debauched Uriah's wife, and then tried to con- 
ceal his iniquity by recalling Uriah home to father 
his offspring; but Uriah was faithful to duty, and 
the nefarious attempt failed. This caused David 
to order his victim slain in battle. He then took 
the woman he had debauched, and whose husband 
he had slain, to wife. By her he had a son, who 
according to the legend was the wisest man in Bib- 
lical history. In this case God omitted to visit 
his father's sin upon him; he escaped the penalty 
through God's favoritism in condoning his father's 
foul iniquity; which showed that immunity may 

9i 



Wfyt ©tffltn oC 

be obtained for the most atrocious crimes by ob- 
sequious worship — a maxim that has been often 
followed in modern life. 

Solomon, notwithstanding his iniquitous origin, 
prospered beyond all the other Kings of Israel, 
and has come down to us not only in Bible tra- 
dition, but in Arabian tales, with genii and afrites. 
In Bible tradition Solomon performed many nota- 
ble acts; he built the Temple at Jerusalem and 
beautified the city. The fame of his wisdom was 
ideal ; the proverbs attributed to him rival in mag- 
nitude his harem with its seven hundred wives — 
all princesses — supplemented by three hundred 
concubines; an even thousand in all. How in- 
significant our modern Mormon Saints appear 
beside this multitudinous polygamist, endowed 
with heavenly wisdom, under the special favor 
and approbation of the God of Israel. Among 
the striking instances displaying an aberration of 
the imagination, is the attributing to such utter- 
ances as are found in the second chapter of Isaiah 
an allusion to occurrences in after- ages unwarrant- 
ably distorted into a prophecy foretelling events 
that were for that purpose made to correspond 
with them, and the result of their coming. The 
prophecy in the fourth chapter has never been 

92 



fulfilled — perhaps it is still expected to be after 
a lapse of two thousand years; if any reference 
to the coming of Christ can by fanatical imagina- 
tion be connected with the commencement of this 
prophecy, the conclusion precludes any reliance 
upon it; there has never been an abrogation of 
natural law, or a gathering of the Jews as predicted. 
It must be a vivid imagination derived from pre- 
conceived ideas that can connect a " foundation- 
stone in Zion" with any reference to Christ. 

The rhapsodical utterances of Isaiah can hardly 
be accepted as a prophecy inspired, with nothing 
but unwarranted assumption to connect it with 
Christ. Isaiah was a Hebrew believing in the pre- 
dominating power of the Hebrew God and a com- 
ing Messiah, who had been traditionally promised 
them to elevate their race to power as his chosen 
people, to rule over the rest of mankind ; all of which 
subsequent history has dissipated. 

Jeremiah prophesied a king to reign over his 
people prosperously, practising judgment, and exe- 
cuting justice righteously, on earth — " and in his 
days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell 
safely." This evidently means the gathering of 
the Jews into an independent nation; which has 
not yet taken place, nor is it likely to hereafter. 

93 



STJje ©riflin of 

When the return of the Jews from captivity was 
promised by God, according to the record, he de- 
clared he would build them up as at first — " In 
those days and at that time, will I cause the branch 
of righteousness to grow up unto David, and he 
shall execute judgment and righteousness in the 
land." This is claimed to mean Jesus, but he 
certainly did not fulfil the prophecy. 

The Rabbi Joseph Kranskopf notes this at- 
tempted reference of Isaiah's prophecies to the 
Gospels. He defines prophet to mean, in Hebrew, 
speaker, preacher, pleader, interpreter, counsellor, 
admonisher, poet, rhapsodist. 

Dean Stanley says that down to the seventeenth 
century, prophecies were used in English in the 
sense of preaching or speaking; "from that time 
they acquired the Greek meaning of foreseeing or 
foretelling future events. " In Biblical times that 
meaning was foreign. 

The functions of Biblical prophets were plainly 
those of preachers, or reformers and exhorters, 
and of statesmen and patriots. They were the 
counsellors of kings when they governed justly, 
and their bitterest opponents when they tyrannized 
the people. They were coadjutors of priests that 
ministered righteously, and were their foes when 

94 



Supernatural (touttpiiouu 

they degraded their calling. The foreseeing and 
foretelling of future events was not a characteris- 
tic of Biblical prophets, whose foretelling related 
to things in the immediate future and in no case 
referred to remote after-times; they were often 
optimistic utterances of their authors to incite 
their people to action. There is no historical or 
logical right to torture the words of Isaiah into a 
prophecy of something to happen hundreds of 
years after his death. They could not possibly 
have applied to any other events save such as took 
place during, or prior to his time, or expected soon 
to follow as logical consequences of existing states 
of affairs, or as sweet dreams or fond ideals. 

A proper answer to the question, as to what the 
events may have been referred to by Isaiah, Rabbi 
Kranskopf says, necessitates a knowledge of the 
times, and that as the Book of Isaiah has not less 
than two authors of different periods to which it 
is to be attributed, they were a century apart, — 
the Assyrian and Babylonian periods. Rabbi Krans- 
kopf then shows that Isaiah, to fortify Ahaz and 
reassure the cowardly king, says the child soon to 
be born of a young woman is to be named Immanuel 
(God with us), "and the land thou abhorrest shall 
be forsaken of both her kings." Such is the true 

95 



3Tf)t ©trtfltn of 

explanation of the first Messianic prophecies; the 
Hebrew young woman being translated virgin. 
The cognomen Immanuel, Christ never attained. 
The other prophecies are clearly shown to refer 
to historic events of that age, having no relation to 
the subsequent birth of Christ, which happened 
hundreds of years afterward. 

The rabbi clearly shows that the prophecies 
quoted in the New Testament from the Old, and 
about which so much pains was taken to perform 
acts to "fulfil" them, in no way relate to Jesus, and 
can by no possibility be connected with him. (See 
Luke 22 : 36.) 

The plain story of this nomadic people seems to 
be, that, after leaving Egypt (if they did really origi- 
nate there), they were weak in numbers, and wan- 
dered in sparsely settled countries, and they grad- 
ally multiplied into a formidable host. As they 
gained strength they crowded out the inhabitants 
of more populous regions, until they reached Ca- 
naan, where, as we have related, by direction of 
their leaders, they attacked the inhabitants, and 
barbarously exterminated them under the assump- 
tion that God had given the land to their ancestor; 
and they took possession of the country under 
that nebulous claim upon which they subsequently 

96 



Supernatural <&ontt»ttimu 

shaped their legends. After these wandering tribes 
settled in Canaan, they consolidated into a nation, 
and conquered other people. The records now 
called Mosaic were compiled subsequently to their 
" captivity" in after-times, from their own tradi- 
tions and the chronicles of their captors the Baby- 
lonians, as appears from discoveries in recent years 
among the ruins of that city, in which is found the 
original legend of creation paraphrased in Genesis. 
A survey of the historical facts pertaining to the 
advent of the Hebrew nation, and its tribal rela- 
tions, shows us a minor people surrounded by 
nations much greater and more advanced in cul- 
ture and civilization; which eventually lapsed into 
an appendage of the Roman Empire, and owes 
its prominence in modern times to the advent of 
the Christian religion, which originated in it, and 
attained a marvellous power in the decadence of 
the Roman Empire, that has dominated the most 
advanced nations of the present day. 



97 



&%t ©tiflin of 



CHAPTER III. 

CHRIST'S ADVENT AND MISSION 

Some nineteen centuries ago we find the Jews 
were under the rule of a Roman governor, with 
a freedom to worship their God that was accorded 
to most of the Roman colonies subject to its domi- 
nation. The Jews had previously, as we have seen, 
been conquered by the Babylonians, with whom 
they lived for many years in captivity, and had free 
access to their literature and records. Of these the 
author, collaborator, or editor of Genesis availed 
himself in narrating the history of the creation of 
the world, which so closely follows the Babylonian 
account as to leave no doubt that it is a plagiarism 
from that source, modified to suit the religious 
traditions of the Jewish hierarchy of five or six 
hundred years before. 

The Pentateuch, from whatever source derived, 
and however compiled, is the basis upon which 
the New Testament rests; it is constantly referred 

98 



to in the Gospels, and was often quoted by Christ 
and his followers authoritatively. With this fact 
determined, we have examined the Gospels, from 
which we have endeavored to educe a rational and 
consistent life of Christ, consonant with the his- 
torical legend, in which all particulars of his bel- 
ligerent acts that are clearly indicated are studiously 
omitted. We have eliminated the miraculous and 
supernatural incidents, of which there is no evi- 
dence except the traditional credence of his fol- 
lowers, recorded by authors unidentified more 
than a century after the events narrated had 
occurred. 

Among the Jewish legends there was a tradi- 
tion that a Messiah was to come to free them from 
all evils. The title of Messiah (anointed) was 
applied to their anointed kings ; but the one that 
was to come was to be transcendently above the 
others in power and glory. The prophecies about 
this coming Messiah were uttered, doubtlessly, to 
keep up the spirits of the downtrodden people. 
They announced the coming of a king who would 
be to the Israelites salvation, freeing them from 
the assaults of other nations, and the troubling of 
the wicked within their community. The Messiah 
was to be of and from the Jews, and was to in- 
L Of v.. 99 



augurate a nation transcending all other nations. 
This tradition engendered several claimants from 
time to time, the most conspicuous of whom, so 
far as we know, was Jesus Christ, whose mission 
was by him declared to be to the Jews alone ; under 
the title of "King of the Jews" thus appropriating 
all the Messianic passages in the Old Testament 
recognizing a Messiah as referring to him, for which 
he was subsequently deified by his proselytes. 

All that we know of the life of Christ is contained 
in the New Testament ; written mostly by unknown 
authors, whose accounts were derived from the 
traditions of his sectarian followers. They cannot 
be traced back to an earlier date than about the 
beginning of the second century after his death; 
and it is important to note here that no allusion to 
the life of Christ is found in any contemporaneous 
record, or any mention of abnormal or miraculous 
phenomena that took place in the vicinity of Jeru- 
salem during his life, or at his death ; and it is sig- 
nificant that all the adverse writings of subsequent 
times down to a recent period have been ruthlessly 
destroyed. So significant was this fact deemed to 
be, that, in after-time, several clumsy forgeries were 
perpetrated by monks of the middle ages, notably 
those attributed to Pliny the Younger, and Josephus ; 

IOO 



Sujiewatttval Qonttptionu 

but the frauds have been noticed and exposed by 
modern critics. 

There is a variant relation of the advent of Christ 
in the different Gospels which, as we are dealing 
with the assumption of the supernatural, it be- 
hooves us to strictly analyze. In Matthew it is 
stated that after Mary was espoused to Joseph she 
was found with child, which caused Joseph to 
determine to put her away privately, not to expose 
her; but he had a dream in which an angel as- 
sured him the Holy Ghost was the father, and she 
was pure. Joseph was told to call her son Jesus, 
and that he would save the people from their sins. 
Now all this was done, the Gospel says, that the 
saying of a prophet might be fulfilled; in other 
words, this was done to fulfil a prophecy, although 
the prophet referred to called him Emmanuel. 

In Luke we are told Gabriel the angel appeared 
to Mary, and told her the son she would conceive 
should be called Jesus. He further told her he 
should be great and called the Son of the Highest, 
who would give him the throne of his father David 
(evidently a temporal throne), and "he shall reign 
over the house of Jacob forever;" "and of his 
kingdom there shall be no end. ,, (This prophecy, 
history shows us, has not been fulfilled.) After 

IOI 



Si)* <©tifliti Qt 

this Mary assented to the proposition of the 
angel. 

Mark and John fail to relate this miraculous 
conception, which closely accords with the story 
of the advent of Buddha and of Krishna, told 
ages before, as we learn from recorded history. 

The Gospel of St. Matthew being probably the 
most authoritative version of the current legends 
of the history of Christ, and in nearest accord with 
the earliest traditions, we shall follow it gen- 
erally in our exposition of his life and acts. 

According to the Gospel of St. Matthew, Jesus 
Christ was the son of the God of the Hebrews 
(although he always declared himself to be "the 
Son of Man"). He was circumcised and educated 
as a Jew, and accepted Jewish traditions in the 
Hebrew Scriptures as a divinely instituted author- 
ity. 

Christ's genealogy is traced in Matthew's Gospel 
from David down to Joseph (the husband of Mary, 
Christ's mother), through whom he derived his 
pedigree as "son of David," while the Gospel de- 
clares him to be the supernatural son of God, con- 
ceived by Mary while a virgin. After his birth, 
we are told, his life was sought by Herod, resulting 
in a slaughter of children to destroy him. 

103 



Supernatural ©ouceptiims 

These incidents are an apparent plagiarism from 
the tradition of Buddha, written centuries before 
Christ's birth, and well known at that time through- 
out the East. Apart from the plagiarism, it is 
more than doubtful if a Roman ruler would have 
issued such a monstrous and senseless edict, of 
which there is no mention made in Roman or Jew- 
ish history. This shows the nebulous character of 
the entire record. It is obvious that the only com- 
petent human witness for the miraculous concep- 
tion was Mary, from whom there is no direct tes- 
timony; but she repeatedly called Joseph Christ's 
father, while he invariably called himself the "Son 
of Man." We leave this enigma for the theolo- 
gians to explain. 1 

There is nothing marvellous or unusual related 
in any accredited life of Christ up to his thirtieth 
year, during which time he seems to have lived in 
unrecorded obscurity This is a strange hiatus 
in the life of "the only begotten Son of God," sent 

'The life of Christ, shorn of its supernatural embellishments, 
shows a being full of the characteristics of humanity, and many 
of its weaknesses, with a knowledge only commensurate with the 
age in which he lived. His moral teachings were, as recorded, 
similar to those of earlier sages, many of whose aphorisms were 
attributed to him, such as the Golden Rule of Confucius, uttered 
centuries before his birth. 

103 



8Cf)t ©ttflfn of 

into the world as the only Saviour of men ! It was 
a long period of preparation compared with the 
time employed by him in active labors that ended 
his career. 

Tradition says he was born during a journey of 
his parents, in Bethlehem, in accordance with an 
ancient prophecy. There was nothing abnormal 
in his gestation or parturition. He came into the 
world a helpless infant, was nursed by his mother, 
and grew from infancy to maturity by the slow 
process of human development, in which only a 
single episode is recorded, — that of talking with 
the doctors in the Temple. This was not a re- 
markable incident in the life of a precocious boy. 
On that occasion, the legend says, when his parents 
missed him and returned in search of him, they 
found him in the Temple, sitting with the doctors, 
hearing them, and asking them questions; which 
it is related astonished them by his understand- 
ing and answers. As this was the first demonstra- 
tion of his intellect, it would have been transcen- 
dently valuable to have a record of his sayings on 
that notable occasion, on which there was an op- 
portunity to announce his vocation and divine 
afflatus, that would have indicated his future career 
as "Messiah" and "King of the Jews." He made 

104 



Supernatural Qtrnttptiom 

no announcement there of his Messianic mission 
or future teaching. Beyond the capacity of a pre- 
cocious boy nothing appears in this incident. 

When he was found by his parents, he expressed 
no regret for their anxiety, but asked why they 
sought him, saying, "Wist ye not that I must be 
about my father's business?" (We have no rec- 
ord that he was ever about it afterward until he 
was thirty years old.) His parents did not commend 
his mystical excuse, notwithstanding their assumed 
knowledge of his divine origin. Although this in- 
cident is made an important factor by Biblicists, 
in proof of his divinity, the result on that occasion 
was a reproof from his mother, "Son, why hast 
thou dealt so with us? behold, thy father and I 
have sought thee sorrowing." Mary always spoke 
of Joseph as the father of Christ, who was circum- 
cised under Jewish law, and brought up with the 
rest of Mary's children in the family of Joseph, 
without any noticeable distinction. He was known 
in Nazareth as the son of Joseph, and it is nowhere 
recorded that Joseph or Mary ever announced him 
to be of superhuman origin during his youth, or 
afterward; nor does it appear that the people of 
Nazareth ever entertained such an idea, or knew 
anything of his miraculous conception, or the won- 

i°5 



W§t ©riflUi of 

ders related of his birth which, if they had occurred, 
they could not have been ignorant of. When the 
father and mother of Jesus found him in the Temple, 
and he had given a reason that they did not approve 
for his escapade, they took him home with them, 
"and he was subject unto them." Whether this 
means that they chastised him for the trouble and 
anxiety he had subjected them to, or not, must be 
left to conjecture, aided by a knowledge of the 
customs of those times. It is certain we have no 
account of his ever repeating the offence again, how- 
ever pressing he conceived his father's business 
to have been. 

From the historical incidents recorded in the Gos- 
pels, there seems to be no reasonable doubt that 
at the beginning of his public career Christ en- 
deavored to incite the Jews into rebellion, under the 
guise of the traditional Messiah that was expected 
to emancipate them, and establish them in an in- 
dependent kingdom. In this enterprise he was aided 
by his cousin, John the Baptist, who appeared in 
a unique garb, feeding on primitive food, to rouse 
the superstitious people into a crusade that alarmed 
the authorities. These relatives, Jesus and John, 
obviously acted in unison on a preconcerted plan, 
and followed out a similar line of policy; first 

1 06 



gathering the people together, under the assump- 
tion that John was the forerunner, to announce 
the advent of their expected Messiah. John gath- 
ered a multitude of people from all the country 
round about Jordan, baptizing those who believed 
the "kingdom of heaven" was to be established, 
with the coming Messiah as the ' ' King of the 
Jews." T During this initiatory movement, Jesus 
appeared, and was baptized. At this time he had 
a vision, serving to confirm their neophytes in 
the belief that he was the Messiah that the 
prophecies foretold would appear to liberate 
them. 

But the time had not come for Jesus to act, so 
he retired for a season, while John continued his 
propaganda. It is related that Christ then went 
into the wilderness, to be tempted by the devil, 
the reason for which is not apparent. It is certain 
the fiend proved very inadequate and short-sighted 
if an entity; but if a figure of speech, to indicate 
Christ's mental state at that time, the incident illus- 
trates his very human proclivity, with aspirations 
for power and glory that may have disturbed his 
meditations, as he was about to assume the role 

1 Baptizing was evidently a mode of pledging the people to 
fight for Jesus to make him king. 

107 



art)* (©rifltn ot 

of "King of the Jews." Either way, he had the 
resolution to repel the temptation, and a careful 
forbearance to abstain from an acrobatic leap, in 
the fallacious expectation of being borne up by 
angels. 

At first the mission of these religionary-polit- 
ical leaders was exclusively to the Jews; and not 
until later and more disastrous times was there an 
inclusion of other people by his followers. After 
John and Jesus succeeded in collecting thousands 
of followers, Jesus admonished them to be ready 
to suffer all things, and lay down their lives in 
his cause, assuring them that they would thus 
secure eternal happiness, while a failure to act 
would involve them in everlasting misery. 

After John the Baptist was beheaded, Christ fled 
away to the Sea of Galilee, avoiding Nazareth, 
where he might have been traced; he thus escaped 
a like fate. He continued organizing his proselytes, 
and chose twelve disciples. He then preached the 
''kingdom of heaven" about to be established, 
which he taught in the synagogues of all Galilee, 
"and great multitudes followed him from Galilee, 
Jerusalem, Judea, Decapolis, and beyond Jordan." 
This organized army of adherents he addressed, as 
we have seen, on a mountain, where they were gath- 

108 



ered into companies; and he instructed them, as is 
recorded in the fifth chapter of Matthew. 

In his Sermon on the Mount, delivered to a host 
about to follow him to Jerusalem, Christ tells them 
it is blessed to be meek, submissive, and enduring, 
for his sake, for which they will be richly rewarded. 
He admonishes them that they must act, to be effi- 
cient. He denies the imputation that he has come 
to destroy the Mosaic law (this would be meaning- 
less if he was not engaged in a war against the rul- 
ing powers). Knowing his followers were Jews 
who believed in the law, which they would not help 
destroy, he endeavored to amplify it, declaring, 
in an extravagant figure of speech, that heaven and 
earth should pass away before any portion of the 
law should pass. He exhorts his followers to be 
meek, humble, and obedient, living in harmony and 
avoiding litigation. In hyperbolic language, he 
enjoins non-resistance of injury, with an anomalous 
admonition to pluck out an eye, and cut off a hand, 
if it offends. No normal man of to-day believes in 
non-resistance of evil, or submission to injury. That 
injunction was evidently a temporary admonition, 
to keep his ignorant and unruly followers from en- 
gaging in contention, to the detriment of the cause 
in which they were engaged. While there are 

109 



doubtless some moral aphorisms in the Sermon on 
the Mount, it was evidently not intended for gen- 
eral application, but was addressed to a rude army 
about to engage in a religious war. His purpose 
was evidently to inculcate strict obedience and fidel- 
ity to his cause, with the fear of hell-fire for dere- 
liction, and to prepare them for a conflict that was 
about to be initiated. It is addressed to an igno- 
rant host, and is filled with advice as to their con- 
duct in trying times, soon to take place, tempered 
with a little wholesome flattery, and with strenu- 
ous admonition and command, to prevent their get- 
ting into quarrels that would divert them from the 
main purpose of establishing his kingdom. He 
charges them to take no thought for the morrow, 
for they would be taken care of, and could supply 
their wants by taking the godsends. He taught 
them strict obedience to his commands, and encour- 
aged them by declaring that those who obey and do 
will be rewarded; while those who merely say to 
him, "Lord! Lord!" and do not act, he will not 
recognize or receive into his "kingdom of heaven," 
to be established. 

In sending out his disciples to obtain recruits, he 
cautions them not to go to the Gentiles, but "to 
the lost sheep of the house of Israel." The Gen- 
no 



Supernatural eonccimous 

tiles were evidently beyond the purpose of his mis- 
sion as "King of the Jews." His constant injunc- 
tions of secrecy were frequent and suggestive for 
war; otherwise they were meaningless. To carry 
out his secret instructions, he says, "What I tell 
you in the darkness, that speak ye in the light ; and 
what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye on the house- 
tops." 

All mention is carefully avoided in the Gospels 
of any warlike deeds which were unsuccessful; but 
John was apprehended and cast into prison for his 
demonstrations, the assumed cause for which is 
not very rational, — a belligerent intent is more 
probable. It is obvious that Jesus Christ and John 
the Baptist were striving to establish a " kingdom 
of heaven," with Christ as the promised "Messiah " 
and "King of the Jews" which tradition foretold. 
From the declarations of Christ we learn that he 
was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, 
and the belligerency of his mission and the uncom- 
promising warfare in which he told his followers he 
was about to engage are clearly set forth by him. 
He says, ' ' Think not that I am come to send peace 
on earth : I am not come to send peace, but a sword. 
For I am come to set a man at variance with his 
father, and the daughter against her mother, and 

in 



the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and 
a man's foes shall be those of his own household." 
"He that loveth father or mother more than me 
is not worthy of me." And he declares that he who 
stands by him "shall in no wise lose his reward." 
Can there be a shadow of a doubt that this is a war- 
like speech to an army of followers about to fight 
to make him " King of the Jews?" In addressing 
his followers on that occasion, he strenuously ex- 
horts them to action, depicting the dangers they 
are to meet in the coming contest, charging them 
to be valorous, and threatening them with terrific 
penalties if they evaded their duty. He says to them, 
"Fear not them which kill the body 5 but are not 
able to destroy the soul; but rather fear him who 
is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." 
That this host was to be armed is clearly shown 
by Christ's injunction to sell even their garments, 
if necessary, to purchase a sword. (Luke 22 : 36.) 
He also declared (Luke 14: 26), "If any man 
come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, 
and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, 
yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. 
And whosoever does not bear his cross, 1 and come 

1 It is evident that Christ did not at that time use the word 
cross, as it did not then signify the symbolical meaning given to 

112 



Supernatural (fronttptiom 

after me, cannot be my disciple." " Whosoever he 
be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, can- 
not be my disciple." 1 At this time of turbulent 
activity, Christ had to check the aspiring bickerings 
and jealousies of his disciples respecting their status 
in the kingdom about to be inaugurated. In this 
he used finesse, making obedience, with humble and 
diligent servitude, the acme of merit. When his 
disciples asked what position they were to have in 
his kingdom, he disclaimed the power to decide 
upon their relative claims to promotion, which he 
declared was the province of his Father in heaven, — 
well out of their reach. 

When he gave command to the host under him 
to move on to the invasion of Jerusalem, a disciple 
said to him, * ' Lord, suffer me first to go and bury 

it after his crucifixion, by the Gospel writers. The unlearned 
multitude he was addressing on the mountain would not have 
understood a metaphorical allusion. Christ's injunction, no 
doubt, was, to arm themselves for an entrance with him into 
Jerusalem and the Temple where he was about to lead them. 
The word cross was undoubtedly used in the Gospel for arms, 
to disguise the belligerent character of that expedition which 
terminated so disastrously. 

1 Much as these passages have been distorted into a spiritual 
meaning, they are a blunt declaration that his followers are to 
fight in his undertaking to make him " King of the Jews " and 
establish a " kingdom of heaven " in Jerusalem. His followers 
were too ignorant to appreciate spiritual teaching. 

113 



Stye ©tifltn of 

my father," but Jesus said to him, ' ' Follow me, and 
let the dead bury their dead." This most unfeeling 
answer could only have been made by a commander 
at a strenuous time for immediate action, as it would 
otherwise have been barbarous, senseless, and use- 
lessly cruel if uttered in a time of peace, while it 
involved an absurd impossibility. 

With an army of followers Christ started from 
Jericho for Jerusalem. They were enthusiastic in 
the belief that he was the promised Messiah, and 
that he would become the King of the Jews. As 
they approached the city, in order to enter it in 
greater state, he was mounted on an ass, on which 
garments of his followers were laid; and in their 
enthusiasm, they threw down their clothing for him 
to ride over, strewing branches also in the way. 
' ' And the multitudes that went before, and followed, 
cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David ! Blessed 
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord ! Ho- 
sanna in the highest ! And when he was come into 
Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is 
this?" (Showing the raid was unexpected by the 
people of Jerusalem.) And his followers said, 
' ' This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth ! And 
Jesus went [with his host] into the Temple of God, 
and cast out all them that sold and bought in the 
114 



Temple, and overthrew the tables." 1 When the 
chief priests and scribes saw this incursion of a 
fanatical host upon the Temple, they were alarmed 
and displeased; and they asked Jesus if he heard 
the cries, "Hosanna for the Son of David," and he 
answered, ' ' Yea," and said the stones would cry 
out if they did not, showing his full assent to the 
demonstration, which was clearly a usurpation of 
authority by force of arms; very unlike the role of 
the Prince of Peace. 

He did not remain in that dangerous position 
overnight, but drew off and went out to Bethany, 
returning the next day, at which time a miracle is 
introduced on the way, denoting his impetuosity of 
character, that was also displayed elsewhere, espe- 
cially under a triumphal achievement. He went to 
gather figs from a tree by the wayside, but finding 
no fruit on it, he, being hungry, was evidently dis- 
appointed and angry, so he vented his wrath upon 
the unfortunate tree, condemning it to perpetual 
barrenness; and the tree died. The senseless char- 
acter of this miracle does not seem to impress the 

*The assumption has been that Christ alone, by his own 
puissance, drove out the occupants of the Temple, as is indi- 
cated in the fabulous Gospel of John, which version is evidently 
chimerical. He was backed by an army of followers, too strong 
to be resisted at that time by the authorities. 

"5 



8T!)t ©rifliti of 

modern theologians, or to detract from the as- 
sumption of Christ's divine perfection. He assured 
his followers they could not only do the like, but 
remove mountains and cast them into the sea, ij 
they had faith and doubted not. 1 What this had to 
do with the mission of a redeemer of men's souls, 
or a divine instructor, must be left to men more 
profound in casuistry than we pretend to be for a 
solution. When Jesus again took possession of the 
Temple, surrounded by his followers, the chief 
priests and elders came to him and asked by what 
authority he thus invaded the Temple, and who 
gave him authority to do so? To this, as he was 
backed by a formidable multitude, he refused to 
give an answer, which they, as custodians of the 
Temple, had a right to demand. 

The length of time that he kept possession of the 
Temple is not stated, but he held forth there for 
some time, during which he uttered virulent philip- 
pics against the Pharisees, while he bid his followers 
to observe and do what they taught (well knowing 
that they taught the Mosaic law). He adjures 
them not to follow their acts, which were opposed to 
his assumptions. His warfare against the Phari- 
sees and scribes, his strongest opponents, was very 

A very pertinent if. 

116 



Sttjieruattttal Couccjiftotts 

bitter; as well as against the priests of the Temple, 
who all repudiated his claim to the Messiahship, 
well knowing the danger of such a rising against 
Roman authority. 

The maledictions that he hurled at those in 
authority and all others that opposed him, show 
a vindictive spirit, hardly in accordance with a 
Saviour of souls preaching peace and forgiveness 
of enemies. We have seen that spirit indicated in 
the destruction of the fig-tree, and in his repri- 
mand of Peter; it was dangerous to thwart him 
in anything. There is no account of the expulsion 
of Jesus with his followers from the Temple; but 
that they were driven out as soon as the authori- 
ties obtained a force sufficient to expel them, is 
clearly indicated in the sequel. Before he left, 
his lamentations were very great; he threatened 
doom to Jerusalem for its bloodshed and a destruc- 
tion of the Temple. While he " would have gath- 
ered her children as a hen gathers her chickens 
under her wing," he tells them, "Ye shall not see 
me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that 
cometh in the name of the Lord." He said also, 
"Verily I say unto you, all these things shall 
come upon this generation." While history 
has shown these statements to have been erro- 

117 



8TJ>* (BviQin of 

neous, they coincide with the character of their 
author. 

In whatever way his retreat from the Temple, 
and from Jerusalem, may have been effected, we 
next find him hidden on the Mount of Olives and 
his army of followers dispersed; there his disciples 
came to him privately to learn when all the things 
he had told about should come to pass ; what would 
be the sign of his coming, and the end of the world. 
Instead of a categorical answer, he tells them not 
to be deceived or troubled when they hear of wars, 
and nation rising against nation, as those things 
must come to pass; with famine, pestilences, and 
earthquakes in divers places ; * ' then they shall 
deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you> 
and you shall be hated of all nations for my name's 
sake, but he that shall endure unto the end shall 
be saved." "When ye shall see the abomination 
of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, 
stand in the holy place, then let them which be in 
Judea flee into the mountains, let him in the field 
not turn back to take his clothes; woe to all that 
are not able to go, but pray ye your ■ flight be not 
in the winter; for then shall be great tribulation, 

1 The italicized pronouns show that his auditors were to wit- 
ness all this while living. 

Ii8 



Supernatural cr-ouctpttott* 

such as was not since the beginning of the world 
to this time, no, nor ever shall be." He warns them 
not to be deceived by false Christs ; he tells them 
that on his coming "the sun and moon will be 
darkened, and the stars shall jail," etc., "and the 
heavens be shaken." (This clearly proves that 
Christ was ignorant of the organization of the 
universe.) 

He concludes by averring, "Verily I say unto 
you, this generation shall not pass, till all these 
times be fulfilled." "Heaven and earth shall pass 
away, but my words shall not pass away." He 
tells them that no one knows when this is to hap- 
pen but his Father only (this relieved him from set- 
ting a time and clearly shows his inferiority to his 
Father), but it would be before that generation 
should pass away. He cautions them to watch vigi- 
lantly, and be ready, "for in such an hour as ye 
think not the Son of Man cometh." It is evident 
that at this time disaster had come upon him; 
his followers had left him, and his disciples came 
to him privately to learn when the aid from heaven 
that he had been promising them would come. 
He evades the question by saying his Father in 
heaven alone knows, and he does not know, but it 
will all take place during their lifetime; and then 

119 



8E!)* ©rifllti of 

he expatiates on his advent in the clouds, with 
lightnings, and a blotting out of the sun and the 
moon, accompanied by a shower of stars; pyro- 
technic phenomena to strike terror into the hearts 
of his adversaries, and display his omnipotence 
to his followers. 

At that time he evidently saw his cause had 
failed, and that his life was in peril; but he still 
determined to keep up the illusion with his followers 
to the last. Unfortunately for him, while he and 
John had great proselyting powers, they neither 
of them possessed the talent or following of a Mo- 
hammed, Alexander, or Napoleon, with their able 
generals. While in his retreat on the Mount of 
Olives, he knew he would not be arrested on the 
Feast of the Passover, so he ventured into Jerusa- 
lem with his disciples to keep that feast, in accord- 
ance with his Jewish training. Judas, who had 
been bribed to aid in his arrest, was with them at 
the celebration of the Passover. After the supper, 
and their retreat into hiding, he, well knowing their 
place of refuge, guided an armed posse to their 
haunt to arrest Jesus. This shows two important 
facts: that he was hiding from the officers of the 
law, and was without sufficient force to resist them. 
When Christ was taken into custody, after some 
120 



Sttjimiatttral <&tmttptiQM 

attempt at resistance by his followers, he was 
brought before the high priest, evidently for his 
taking forcible possession of the Temple; but as 
the Jews had no power to punish him, he was 
turned over to the Roman authorities, on the graver 
charge of assuming to be the " King of the Jews," 
about which the account says there was much 
false swearing, but Jesus acknowledged the charge. 
For that crime, as it was deemed, he was executed ; 
and, that there should be no misunderstanding 
about the reason for his punishment, Pilate caused 
it to be blazoned upon his cross in three languages, 
— Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, — ' ' This is Jesus, 
the King oj the Jews." Thus ended the visible ca- 
reer of the man that his followers afterward deified, 
and worshipped as the Son of God, and subse- 
quently as one of the paradoxical triune Godhead. 



121 



ffitye ©rifltti of 



CHAPTER IV. 



Christ, who it is assumed descended from David 
through Joseph, the husband of his mother, whom 
she called his father, was, as we have seen, a cir- 
cumcised Jew, and lived in his parents' family 
with his brothers and sisters; no notable differ- 
ence was recorded of him until he was about thirty 
years old, and there was no rumor in Nazareth 
of his miraculous birth; nor did Mary or Joseph 
proclaim it. When he announced himself as the 
" Messiah " and "King of the Jews," neither his 
father nor mother, brothers nor sisters, joined his 
crusade; nor did they ever after aid him in his 
mission. Not only did his family disapprove of 
his course, and that of John the Baptist, by keep- 
ing aloof from them, but his mother and brethren 
sought to dissuade him at the height of his ambi- 
tious career, and were repudiated by him, 1 as we 
have seen. 

1 Matt. 12, v. 47, etseq. 
122 



Sttptrnatttral Conceptions 

There is perhaps no clearer proof against the 
divinity of Christ than the fact that his mother 
never aided him by her presence, or declared her 
belief in his divine mission, 1 which was clearly 
repudiated by his whole family; this caused him 
to utter the aphorism, "A prophet is not without 
honor, but in his own country, and among his own 
kin, and in his own house." 

The habits of Jesus were in strong contrast with 
those of his coadjutor, John the Baptist, who was 
an abstainer from self-indulgence like the seers 
of old ; but Jesus was fond of good living, and was 
a wine-drinker; he patronized feasts, and asso- 
ciated with publicans, striving to make himself 
popular with the people; he defended his course 
with adroitness, as ministering to the needy. Christ's 
teaching was according to the spirit of the age, 
mostly in parables, with a certain latitude and 
ambiguity, and his acts were in many particulars 
at variance with the law, which he declared shall 

1 The story recorded in the Gospel of John, of his mother at 
the cross, is clearly refuted by the other three Gospels, in addition 
to the fact that she had a husband and children, who were better 
able, probably, to care for her, and more in unison with her, than 
a disciple of Christ. John's Gospel is clearly an excogitation 
from the brain of an imaginative Pauline fanatic who probably 
wrote that weird book called " Revelation," that is only the reve- 
lation of the author's morbid invention. 

123 



&§t ©rfflin of 

not in one jot or tittle pass away "till heaven and 
earth pass away." He did not hesitate to dese- 
crate the Sabbath in the eyes of the law-abiding 
Jews, and justified it by referring to the act of 
his ancestor David, who ate the consecrated show- 
bread, which was not lawful. His freedom of ac- 
tion on the Jewish Sabbath might be imitated by 
modern Christians with advantage by copying the 
freedom of their divine master, instead of forcing 
unwilling people to keep holy the day of the sun- 
worshippers, as ordered by the Emperor Constan- 
tine in dereliction of the Jewish Sabbath. 

The prophetic sayings and fabulous legends of 
the ancients were introduced for the instruction 
of the people; they were often significant and 
pertinent, and were frequently attributed to noted 
seers, to give them currency; they were sometimes 
made to assume a prophetic character, by declar- 
ing that they had been uttered by prophets anterior 
to the facts they were made to announce, or by 
enacting what it was assumed the prophets fore- 
told; such sayings were innumerable, and could 
be appended to the traditions of any divinity, 
prophet, or sage to whom omination was attributed ; 
the facility of thus enhancing the wisdom of a re- 
vered archetype, by appending a wise saying to 
124 



his traditional wisdom, was easy, and difficult of 
detection; in the Gospels are described acts that 
were frequently performed for the purpose of ful- 
filling a prophecy. 

What portion of the parables that are attributed 
to Christ were really uttered by him can never 
be known; they are all derived from traditionary 
recollections, that no one pretends were written 
down at the time of their utterance. Such a para- 
ble as the sower and the seed was adapted to the 
occasion, and hardly needed an interpretation. 
When asked why he spoke in parables, Christ's 
answer was enigmatical: that his hearers should 
not understand; and he then uttered his most 
unjust aphorism, "Whosoever hath, to him shall 
be given, and he shall have more abundance: but 
whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away 
even that which he hath." What a maxim this is 
for the inculcation of the grossest injustice among 
men. The parable of the tares, and those that 
follow it, do not excel those of more ancient sages 
in moral teaching. It is asserted that Christ's 
utterance of parables was made to fulfil the say- 
ings of some prophet ; a reason for many other acts 
in the New Testament. The comparisons of the 
kingdom of heaven to a treasure, to the finding of 

I2 5 



©J)* ©tiffin of 

pearls, to a net, are not sufficiently striking for 
criticism; they indicate heaven as a circumscribed 
space, above the firmament, as do all Christ's 
sayings, and there is a significant denouement, 
that all the sinners are to be cast into a fiery furnace, 
1 'where there shall be wailing and gnashing of 
teeth," and this to all eternity. Who can wonder 
that such teaching should make fiends of man- 
kind ! It is so very easy, if not equitable, to serve 
all grades of sinners alike. 

In his own city, Nazareth, Christ's preaching 
made no proselytes, for his kinfolk and neighbors 
repudiated him; this caused him to utter the la- 
ment that a prophet had no honor in his own coun- 
try and in his own house. (Pity, but they knew him !) 
Christ was very appreciative of the good opin- 
ion of others, and he resented opposition with 
great vehemence; when he met his disciples, as is 
said on one occasion, and asked, "Whom do men 
say that I am?" and on being informed asked, 
1 ' But whom say ye that I am ? " Simon Peter said, 
"Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God." 
It evidently pleased Jesus, who said, "Blessed art 
thou, Simon- B ar-jona : for flesh and blood hath 
not revealed it to thee, but the Father which is in 
heaven." He then declared, "Thou art Peter, and 
126 



<Sttj)amatttral (foucqmous 

upon this rock I will build my church; and I will 
give unto thee the keys of heaven.' ' He also gave 
Peter dominion over earth and hell, so great was 
his satisfaction and confidence in him. But when 
Jesus afterward spoke of his death, and Peter, 
to whom these great powers were given, contro- 
verted him, it evidently excited his indignation 
against the disciple on whom he had bestowed 
such unprecedented power, and turning on him, 
he said, " Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art 
an offence unto me: for thou savorest not the 
things that be of God." What a change in the 
divine Saviour's views of the disciple he had so 
exalted when he dissented from his predictions out 
of extreme love for him ! This was a warning les- 
son to the disciples not to be so indiscreet, as it was 
evident laudation was more agreeable to Christ 
than dissent. His invectives against the scribes 
and Pharisees who opposed his claim to Messiah- 
ship, and the cities that repudiated him, were scath- 
ing and vindictive, in which burning in hell-fire 
was a staple punishment. 

In his teachings Christ indorses that old Baby- 
lonian fable of the flood and of Noah's ark, to il- 
lustrate the unknown time of his coming, and he 
charges his disciples to keep diligent watch there- 



8Tfjf ©rifltn of 

for. If it was not to happen in their time, the in- 
junction was a gross deception on their credulity. 
The constant watchfulness of his followers he fur- 
ther emphasized by the parable of the ten virgins. 
It is probable that at this time, while he foresaw 
his impending fate, he desired to keep his disciples 
together for further aggression, under the illusion 
of his returning with heavenly forces to aid them. 
After his capture he boasted of his divine position 
before the high priest, and was sent by him to the 
Roman governor for trial. Before Pilate he was 
accused of claiming to be the * ' King of the Jews ; " 
whatever evidence was adduced on that occasion 
we have no record of, but Christ himself acknowl- 
edged the charge on which he was condemned and 
executed. 

The episode of Pilate's repudiating the sentence, 
or that Christ suffered death for his religious teach- 
ings, is disproved by the legend blazoned by Pilate on 
the cross. Christ's antipathy to the Jewish hier- 
archy, on account of their opposition to his claims 
as " Messiah" and " King of the Jews," descended 
to his followers, and pervaded their traditions; 
hence the Christian antipathy to the Jews down 
to the present day. 

In reviewing the parables attributed to Christ, 
128 



Supernatural €oticej)tiou8 

they were evidently introduced to elucidate some 
matter under discussion, and were not intended 
for universal application, which the ingenuity of 
modern theologians have adapted them to; and 
unadorned, or exemplified under the light taught 
by modern culture, they are of no higher charac- 
ter than the aphorisms current at that period. There 
is nothing more misleading than the assumption 
of divine teaching in the texts used by modern 
theologians, educated in the high-toned equity 
and morality taught by neoteric science and learn- 
ing, from which our highest moral teaching comes. 

When Jesus had given his envoys secret instruc- 
tions and commenced recruiting in the cities, the 
disciples of John, who was then in prison, came 
to him, and questioned him to know if he was the 
one who was to come, or if they should look for 
another; thus indicating that a movement was 
anticipated, the director of which they were seek- 
ing. Jesus satisfied them, and on their departure 
he uttered flattering encomiums on John, saying, 
"This is Elias, which was to come," premising, 
"if you will receive it," indicating the incredible 
character of the assertion, and the great strain on 
their credulity. 

The recorded teachings ascribed to Jesus were, 
129 



8TJ)t ©ttfltn of 

as we have seen, largely by parables, a mode of 
teaching by fable always current in the East, used 
for inculcating dogmas and morals by their sages 
in early times; the world was full of them, ready 
to be attributed to any teacher as their author, 
who was often nebulous. 

There is nothing about those ascribed to Christ 
more potent, as we have indicated, than those de- 
rived from other sources. He claimed to be the 
Jewish Messiah, and "King of the Jews," in a 
" kingdom of heaven" to be founded by him; this 
was magnified by Paul into a Saviour of mankind. 

After the reception of the delegation from John, 
Jesus went to his own home, among his relatives 
and acquaintances, where he was repudiated; 
and "he did not many mighty works there because 
of their unbelief." It was useless to display won- 
ders where the audience so well knew the actor; 
it is unquestionable that his relatives rejected his 
supernatural and divine claims, and did not intend 
to be involved in his crusade to make himself * ' King 
of the Jews." Could better evidence be adduced 
that his family did not believe in his supernatural 
advent or mission? Neither his father, mother, 
brothers nor sisters were among his followers; 
the only one of his kinfolk that joined in the con- 
130 



Sttpmtatttral eouccjmous 

spiracy was his cousin, John the Baptist, his co- 
adjutor in the demonstration. There can be no 
doubt that the mother of Jesus would have been 
one of his most prominent and devout followers 
if she knew or believed that he was conceived in 
her virginity, through the direct interposition of 
divine power. 



131 



Zfyt dfrviain ot 



CHAPTER V. 
Christ's miracles and resurrection 

The most important factors for belief in the 
divinity of Christ are the assumption of his resur- 
rection and power to work miracles; if there was 
any novelty in this assumption, it might appear 
significant, but the history of every prior divinity 
conceived by man shows them to be equally gifted ; 
therefore, it behooves us to examine into the char- 
acter and proof of the miracles ascribed to him, 
and judge of the avowed purpose and results, 
as recorded in the New Testament, to determine 
their value. 

All the miracles recorded of Jesus Christ were 
local and circumscribed in their purpose; they 
were for the personal advantage of individuals, 
and were only bestowed on believers; they were 
temporary, and seemed to have been displayed 
to guarantee his assumptions to control and coun- 
teract the established laws of nature; while the 
13 2 



great wonders and mighty power he claimed to 
possess, of calling hosts of angels to protect him, 
were never displayed, to antagonize the acts of man. 
He declared that he could, if he so willed, bring 
legions of angels to fight for, and protect him, yet 
in his greatest need and requirement, he received 
no such aid; which, apart from his personal pres- 
ervation, would have gone further to convert the 
world than all the preaching of himself and his 
successors; in fact, his dogma received but little 
aid in its dissemination until the Emperor Constan- 
tine, in great peril, realized the advantage a body 
of fanatics would be to him in his contention with 
his enemies. This gave a standing to the sect 
that enabled them at a later day to dogmatize and 
subdue Rome, and subsequently to dominate and 
barbarize all Europe; which caused the terrible 
warfare between it and science in the contest for 
freedom of thought in search of truth, that has 
culminated in modern civilization. 

"The most general and often repeated miracles 
recorded of Christ were, the healing of the sick 
and decrepit of sundry complaints and infirmi- 
ties, in which casting out devils was the most promi- 
nent. Most of these miracles were of a promiscu- 
ous physical character, not mental, while some 
1 33 



Qfyt #tifltn of 

are described with detailed precision. Possession 
of devils has now faded out of the category of dis- 
eases under the light of modern culture, but was 
then believed in with unquestioning faith by Christ's 
Jewish followers, and by Christ, himself a Jew. 
Before the birth of Christ, and ever since, men have 
appeared who claimed to possess miraculous powers 
to heal diseases and to raise the dead. That hal- 
lucination has been assumed by fanatics, charla- 
tans, and impostors, down to the present time, 
and is now believed in by a large number of intel- 
ligent people in this enlightened age, although the 
assumption is shown on investigation to be falla- 
cious. The instances in which Christ is said to 
have raised the dead were inconspicuous, generally 
unnoticed, and of private interest; it was often 
performed as a reward for unquestioning belief 
in him. 

While the stories of miracles achieved by Christ 
do not differ in their characteristics from those 
of his predecessors, some of them exhibit an ap- 
parent want of equity, malevolence, and favorit- 
ism, or as an aid to social fellowship, incongruous 
in a Messiah, and not prompted by his universal 
mission. 

The miracle of the fig-tree cannot be truthfully 
J 34 



construed otfierwise than as malevolent; no other 
purpose was accomplished by it. The miracle 
of raising Lazarus from the dead appears as an act 
of personal love and friendship; Lazarus, so far 
as Christ's recorded mission was concerned, was 
unimportant, and afforded no aid to the cause; 
so of the widow's son. The healing of the cen- 
turion's servant was a reward for obsequious faith, 
with no result except the chance of winning the 
Roman soldier to his cause. The exodus of a le- 
gion of devils from a crazy man into a herd of swine 
by Christ's command, with license to drown the 
unoffending brutes, served no other apparent pur- 
pose than to beget the hatred of the populace 
where the miracle was enacted, for which he was 
driven away by the incensed people. The con- 
troversy over this miracle, between the grand old 
statesman Gladstone, a faith-ridden fanatic, and 
Professor Huxley, the scientist, shows us the power 
of early teaching over reason and common sense 
in the highest intellects, giving us warning not to 
put faith in the ipse dixit of the most noted author- 
ity, unaccompanied by proof, without careful in- 
vestigation. 

When Jesus heard that John the Baptist was 
beheaded, and hastened away to a place of safety, 

i35 



2M)e ©rtfliu of 

he was followed, as we have seen, by multitudes 
of men, and performed one of his two analogous 
miracles, the feeding a host to surfeit with inade- 
quate provisions, with a surplus of several baskets 
full over a sufficiency. This miracle indicates in- 
cidentally that he had an array of thousands of 
followers at that time with him. The duplication 
of this miracle appears to weaken its probability, 
but it may be that those who hunger after the su- 
pernatural will not be surfeited with the second 
repast; the most important fact historically is the 
narrative showing that he had an army of men 
with him. 

When his disciples next met him, he asked them, 
as before related, "Whom do men say that I am?" 
with his laudation and reproof of Peter. 

Jesus cautioned his followers against pretenders, 
and gave them a graphic description of the advent 
of the " Son of Man," comparing it to lightning com- 
ing out of the east and shining to the west. He 
tells them that immediately after the tribulations 
he had described, " the sun shall be darkened, and 
the moon shall not give her light, and the stars 
shall jail from heaven, when shall appear the sign 
of the ' Son of Man ' coming in the clouds of heaven 
with power and great glory. And he shall send 
136 



Supernatural <&onttptiom 

his aiigels with great sound of trumpet to gather 
the elect from the four winds, from one end of 
heaven to the other." He tells them, "when they 
see these things, they will know the time has come." 
He then goes on to declare in unmistakable lan- 
guage, " Verily I say unto you, this generation shall 
not pass , until all these things are fulfilled; heaven 
and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not 
pass away." He admonishes them to " Watch there- 
fore : for ye know not what hour your Lord doth 
come ; for in such an hour as ye think not the ' Son 
of Man' cometh." In the preceding quotations the 
extent of Christ's knowledge in relation to the phys- 
ical world, and his idea of a circumscribed heaven 
above it, to and from which he and the angels were 
to travel, as appeared in Jacob's dream, and de- 
scending on clouds to earth, clearly show his entire 
ignorance of the physical world. I have italicized 
the sentences quoted to which I would call partic- 
ular attention, showing the unquestionable error 
of Christ's declarations. 

When Christ instructed his disciples how to know 
him from a false Messiah, he tells them he will 
come with wondrous heavenly phenomena that 
our present knowledge shows to be an impossi- 
bility; his prognostication of the time when these 

i37 



events were to happen was not verified. All this 
clearly demonstrates that Christ had no knowl- 
edge beyond that of his compeers about the uni- 
verse; there can be no doubt he believed this earth 
to be a stable, immovable body, and that there 
was a habitable place above the " firmament,' ' 
where heaven was supposed to be, in which ' ' God 
the Father" resided enthroned in glory. He dis- 
tinctly names the ends of heaven, and he declares 
his purpose to fit up mansions there for the saints, 
thus materializing and circumscribing, not only 
heaven, but God, who resided therein; whom he 
learned from Genesis had the configuration of man, 
who was made in his image, and consequently 
he was a personality. Christ's view of heaven, 
and its place in nature, is established by his declara- 
tion that the stars would jail; those little scintil- 
lating sparks in the firmament created in one day, 
as is told in Genesis, that were to fall without dis- 
turbing the immutable earth, on the coming of the 
"Son of Man" to judge this little world, to him 
the stable centre of creation. There can be no doubt 
that he thought the fall of the stars to the earth 
would enhance the sublimity of the advent. We 
need not trace the legend further to establish the 
fact that Christ was ignorant of the true cosmos. 
138 



Supernatural <&outtptiom 

We have seen that Christ assured his disciples 
they "will see" the destruction of the universe 
during their lives; and he admonishes them to 
watch, as they did not know when this would hap- 
pen. He says, " Verily I say unto you, there be some 
standing here that shall not taste death till they 
see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." He 
thus commits himself in the clearest and most 
unmistakable language, that neither theology nor 
sophistry can torture into a metaphysical or spir- 
itual meaning of the statement modifying the plain 
declaration. Time has clearly proved that none 
of the phenomena described by Christ as about 
to take place materialized in that generation, nor 
has it since then, for nineteen hundred years. The 
old legal maxim, jalsus in uno jalsus in omnibus, 
may be here applied with significant force. 

It is obvious from the story told in all the Gos- 
pels that there were persistent feuds and warfare 
between Christ and the Jewish authorities, the 
priests, Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes, against 
all of whom he hurled anathemas for opposing him. 

When his first recorded belligerent act occurred, 
on his notable entrance into Jerusalem trium- 
phantly seated on an ass, a host of thousands of fol- 
lowers paid him divine and kingly honors, calling 

i39 



him "King of the Jews" as he entered the Temple 
and took possession with his army and drove out 
its occupants; all the events immediately follow- 
ing this act of usurped sovereignty are not recorded, 
but he then had a sufficient following at his com- 
mand to temporarily overthrow the legal authori- 
ties; while the legends of his varied fortunes are 
enveloped in a cloud of miracles, such as have been 
attributed to all of the ancient deities, his expul- 
sion from the Temple is not described. 

Before and after the decapitation of John the 
Baptist, Christ was aggressive; subsequently, after 
he had taken possession of the Temple and had 
been ejected therefrom, his later discourses shadow 
forth monitions of his coming fate. True to Jew- 
ish customs and traditions, he prepared to keep 
the Passover with his disciples at a supper which 
proved to be his last ; at this feast, after he had of- 
fered them the wine- cup to drink, he is reported 
to have said, " This is my blood shed for the redemp- 
tion of sins." Here is the first announcement of 
his adherence to the old levitical law of a bloody 
sacrifice to an inexorable God. It was uttered when 
all hope of becoming king had vanished; and he 
then declared he would not taste wine again until 
he drank it anew with his disciples in his Father's 
140 



kingdom, an illusion he still kept up, giving them 
to understand that when they were in his Father's 
kingdom, they would be amply supplied with a 
solace of the wine-cup. 

After the supper, as before related, he and his 
disciples went out to his retreat on the Mount of 
Olives, to escape observation; but Christ was 
evidently apprehensive, for Judas, whom he sus- 
pected, was not with them. Judas knew their 
place of refuge, and the characteristics and pur- 
poses of Christ's disciples; consequently, he in- 
vaded their retreat with a strong force of armed 
men to arrest him, with a preconcerted signal to 
ensure his capture. Christ's followers at first made 
belligerent demonstration, but Jesus, probably see- 
ing the futility of it as is told, forbade them. He 
was then taken into custody and carried before 
the high priest. All his adherents dispersed except 
Peter, who had the boldness to follow his master 
in disguise before the tribunal of elders, where the 
chief priest adjured Jesus, saying, "By the living 
God, tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son 
of God." He answered affirmatively, and boasted 
that they should see him hereafter, "sitting on the 
right hand of power, and coming in the clouds 
of heaven;" this the high priest deemed blasphemy, 

141 



He was then taken before the Roman governor, 
Pilate, before whom he was tried and condemned to 
death, not for the assumption of divinity, but for the 
attempt to enforce his claim to be the ' ' King of the 
Jews." As no detail is given of the evidence against 
him, we cannot judge of its character; but we are 
informed that he confessed to Pilate that he claimed 
to be ' ' King of the Jews," and offered no evidence 
to deny the charge of his usurpation, which under 
Roman law incurred the penalty of death. The 
story that the witnesses were false, and that they 
proved no infringement of the law, — that Pilate 
found no cause for the sentence, and that he de- 
clared, washing his hands, that Christ was innocent 
and a just person, — is so entirely unlike what we 
know of the universal course and policy of Roman 
rulers, as well as of Roman law, that the statement 
appears wholly incredible, especially as it is founded 
on the nebulous traditions of Christ's catechumens 
and apologists orally acquired through several gen- 
erations of vague legendary lore. Such a vacillating, 
wayward administration of justice found no place 
under Roman rule. The offence for which Christ 
was crucified was unmistakably blazoned by Pilate 
upon his cross. 

In the foregoing account of the trial and the exe- 
142 



Supernatural Qonttptiom 

cution of Christ we have followed the first three 
Gospels as the most unbiassed authority ; the fourth 
Gospel is evidently the work of a mystical, fanati- 
cal Paulist, in which statements are made regardless 
of fact, and clearly deviating from the other accounts 
in a way that renders it more than doubtful ; notably, 
the account that the mother of Jesus was near his 
cross, a thing which would not have been permitted 
by the executioners, and which controverts the other 
accounts of the crucifixion, wherein particular men- 
tion is made of the Marys who were present ' ' afar 
off," but do not allude to Christ's mother as being 
there, an incredible omission if she was present. 
This story in the Gospel of John was evidently a 
figment of the writer's brain, who thus deduced the 
homily attributed to Christ at the last supper. The 
inscrutable writer evidently drew upon his imagi- 
nation to sustain his theology, as in his fabulous 
opening chapter. 



H3 



®tje (©vtfltn of 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 

The Sermon on the Mount was evidently, as we 
have seen, a homily addressed by Christ to his un- 
trained, ignorant followers about to engage in per- 
ilous undertakings, exhorting them to be patient 
and content under the great privations and difficul- 
ties they were about to encounter. It gave them as- 
surance of ample reward in the untold future, inter- 
spersed with judicious praise, with an injunction to 
act. l ' Ye are the light of the world ; ye are the salt 
of the earth." He taught a code of non-resistance, 
and used an exaggeration of speech which, but for 
a belief in his divinity, would be deemed absurd, 
advising them if their eyes or hands offended (what- 
ever that may mean), to destroy them, — not to con- 
trol or guide them, but to "cut them off," to pre- 
vent their whole body from being ' ' cast into hell." 

After this exaggerated utterance, he charges them 
not to resist evil, thus teaching a code of non-resist- 
144 



Stumrnattttral <&onu»Uom 

ance that would serve to prevent his followers from 
contest detrimental to his cause. This, although 
not then a new doctrine, has never been practised 
by any cultivated people. Such an act would now 
be considered imbecile, if not criminal. Again, we 
read in this sermon his exhortations to his followers 
to take no thought what they should eat, drink, or 
wear; which, if intended for the exigencies of his 
army, may have been politic, but if intended for a 
guide in ordinary life, is contrary to a sound theory 
of human economy. A thoughtful care for the fu- 
ture is the soul of virtue and prosperity in the indi- 
vidual and in the nation. These aphorisms seem 
to have been the utterances of fanaticism, or to have 
grown out of the exigencies of his situation, and 
have been the unfortunate source of much mistaken 
piety in sects that have sprung up under their in- 
fluence. It may be said of these specimens of 
Christ's exhortations, that what is true and good 
had long before been inculcated, and what is new 
and exceptional is neither good nor true. The par- 
ables are like the fables of earlier origin uttered to 
illustrate moral truths. Whether they are correctly 
attributed to Christ or not is a matter hardly worth 
discussing. They elucidate no new truths, but their 
introduction as teachings was a great temptation 

i45 



©Jje ©tiflfn of 

for a subsequent narrator to insert them into the 
legend. 

No argument would suffice to controvert the mir- 
acles with one who believes in their credibility; 
while the assumption that they were possible, or had 
any existence in fact, cannot be proved by any ad- 
missible evidence. 

In the abnormal acts related of Christ we can 
only mark the character of the phenomena and the 
events that caused them. The first miracle re- 
corded of him, that we note, is the blasting of a fig- 
tree, obviously in revenge for his disappointment. 
In this advanced age it seems wayward and unrea- 
soning, yet theologians try to palliate the act; and 
good, just, intellectual thinkers, desirous that truth 
should prevail, are so handicapped by their belief 
in Christ's divinity that they allow their reason to 
be held in abeyance, because they have had the 
dogma instilled into their minds from infancy, and 
dare not doubt it. So far many of the conscientious 
and good acolytes of all the ancient faiths would 
have sacrificed their lives in defence of their religion 
and in the adulation of their gods, while men who 
have cast off the glamour of superstition see the 
errors and defects of all the gods described by man, 
from whose imperfect mint they have been coined. 
146 



Supernatural (fronttptiom 

The next miracle, which requires much greater 
credulity to believe, is the story of the casting out 
devils from a crazy man living among the tombs, 
and causing them to enter a herd of swine. For- 
tunately this malady of the bedevilment of men to 
deprive them of their senses has totally disappeared 
in these enlightened days, and the potency of its 
introduction has become obsolete. The grossness 
of this story would seem to carry its own refutation 
with it, but one of the most conspicuous statesmen 
in England has in recent days, as we have seen, 
attempted to champion it against the destructive 
assaults of a far more able foeman than myself. 
As I feel assured that he has failed to maintain the 
reality of the fabulous account that Professor Hux- 
ley has so clearly annihilated and consigned to the 
realms of fiction, where it belongs, I need add noth- 
ing further to refute it. 

Another miracle, the turning of water into wine, 
was an act performed at a wedding-feast, simply in 
furtherance of a social festival. This appears to 
have been a prostitution of divine power, on a mis- 
sion, as is claimed, for the salvation of mankind, 
frittered away in dereliction of his vicarious ap- 
pointment as Messiah and Redeemer of the world. 
This miracle, and his declaration that he would 
i47 



Wfyt ©rtflttt Of 

drink wine in heaven thereafter, are sore thorns in 
the sides of the overzealous temperance advocates, 
showing that Christ was unquestionably a drinker 
of wine and bon-vivant. 

He manifestly feared the influence of other aspir- 
ants for the Messiahship on his followers; and 
when his disciples asked him what was to be the 
sign of his coming and the end of the world (which, 
he assured them, and they evidently believed, would 
be in their time), without answering their questions 
he dilated on the manner of his coming, picturing 
a most marvellous display of wonders, with a sound- 
ing of trumpets by angels, and a general destruc- 
tion of the universe to proclaim his advent. In this, 
as in all his other declarations, he is made to call 
himself "the Son of Man,"— not the Son of God 
(thus declaring he had an earthly father), which is 
certainly significant, showing he avoided making 
that claim. He declared, as we have seen, that all 
the wonders he had described were to happen dur- 
ing the lifetime of that generation. Such a descrip- 
tion would be deemed farcical if it were not believed 
to be the utterance of Deity, yet wise, learned, and 
good people have faith in his hereafter coming. 

On this rhapsodically dramatic second coming, 
with a blast of trumpets, accompanied by angels 
148 



and a fall of stars, he was to judge all mankind and 
divide them into two groups, the sheep and the 
goats, — the saints and the sinners, — between 
which he was to draw a sharp line, and, on the 
principle of his parable of the laborers in the vine- 
yard, he would reward the sheep of all degrees of 
goodness equally; and the goats he would hurl in- 
discriminately ' ' into everlasting punishment pre- 
pared for the devil and his angels," — described 
elsewhere as everlasting fire. Such is the picture 
of the dispenser of Christian justice given by his 
biographer, who as well as himself lived in a primi- 
tive, ignorant, and superstitious age, above which 
their ideas did not rise. 

To explain the failure to make good the assertion 
that he would appear, as he said he would, has ex- 
ercised many profound and brilliant intellects; and 
when such authorities were received on their own 
ipse dixit, their dictum was sufficient. But modern 
science repudiates all dogmatisms unsupported by 
facts, discarding their theories, sophistic reasonings, 
and subterfuges employed to reconcile the known 
fact with the false declaration. 

Christ had achieved his popularity with the lower 
strata of the populace, and had obtained a follow- 
ing, which seems never to have attained proportions 
149 



sufficiently formidable to endanger the government. 
But the story culminates in a record of miracles, 
healing of the sick, raising of the dead, and casting 
out devils, all of which was common in prior East- 
ern mythologies. 



x 5o 



Supernatural Qonttptiontt 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION — JOHN'S GOSPEL 



Having briefly set forth some of the salient 
features in the life of Christ and his teachings, 
drawn from the meagre record in the Gospels, in 
which mysticism pervades the story, that shows 
an evident evasion of his belligerent acts and their 
failure, by a suppression of facts, it is interesting 
to analyze the religion based upon it, premising that 
the histories of the world record the establish- 
ment of innumerable religious dogmas, which are 
often based upon seeming trifles. Such grand and 
wide-spread religions as are based on the Hindu, 
Buddhist, Egyptian, Grecian, and Roman mythol- 
ogies were the outcome of generating incidents, 
facts, and suggestions drawn from the phenomena 
of nature, or the events of social relations, that 
impressed themselves upon the primitive mind, 
events materialized in the imagination and devel- 
oped from nuclei apparently inconsequent and 

151 



frivolous. From such an origin was the Moham- 
medan religious faith developed in later times, 
that spread further and embraced a larger number 
of proselytes than the Christian religion has done, 
and in less time. 

In our country sectarian dogmas have sprung 
up with wonderful vitality in the midst of an en- 
lightened community; witness the sect of Shakers, 
believing in the second advent of Christ in the per- 
son of a female (Ann Lee), and the more recent 
Mormon faith, with a host of earnest believers, 
ready to peril life and comfort for the cause, which 
originated in the most absurd pretensions that could 
well be elaborated. Yet they resulted in sects 
which a few years earlier would have developed 
a new nation. And now, that barefaced fraud 
Dowie pockets millions of dollars while deluding 
a multitude of followers. 

We thus see that no bounds can be anticipated 
for human credulity and fanaticism. We may 
note, however, that the records of abnormal and 
supernatural appearances have become less fre- 
quent as the world gets more enlightened ; although 
many learned men of to-day, as well as a vast ma- 
jority of the people in the most advanced coun- 
tries, believe in supernatural occurrences that 

J 52 



Supernatural <&onttptiom 

tradition relates happened centuries ago. No 
number of witnesses would cause the world of sci- 
ence to believe in their occurrence at the present 
day. A man who should pretend now to have a 
divine mission would attain as much apprecia- 
tion by the ignorant as Christ, the son of a Naz- 
arene carpenter, did in Judea, with as many fol- 
lowers as tradition gives him. The most absurd 
pretender still has followers; and so it will ever 
be until men learn that there never was any reve- 
lation or abnormal miraculous phenomenon imparted 
to man at any time jrom any source. 

In carefully reading the record of Christ's teach- 
ings, we are impressed with the fact that, while 
there is no indication that he knew anything of 
the true cosmology of the universe, there are many 
passages that show his entire ignorance of it. It 
is clear that he pictured heaven as a determinate 
place above the " firmament" which surmounted 
the world; that the sun and moon could be dark- 
ened as a readily achievable act ; and that the stars 
(the little spangles that dotted the great arch over 
us) could jail. Wonderful destruction of the uni- 
verse was to take place in consequence of the com- 
ing of the " Son of Man" to judge mankind in this 
little planet. To him the earth was immovable, 

*S3 



and that he and hosts of angels would descend upon 
it from the great arch over it, where heaven was 
located, on clouds; that heaven, though circum- 
scribed, was big enough to hold all the saints. 

Christ's idea of the universe was that of the age 
in which he lived; and if the Revelation of St. 
John was inspired by the same authority, we know 
what Christ had in his mind when he was made 
to speak of the mansions that he was going to pre- 
pare for his disciples and the saints, in that heav- 
enly abode. It would be a work of supererogation 
to further illustrate Christ's total ignorance of the 
universe. When he talked of the stars falling, 
how little did he know about those ponderous orbs 
that sink this little world into insignificant dimen- 
sions in the creation. Can there be stronger proof 
of the fabulous character of these narratives ? 

It is clear that the warfare between Christ and 
the sect of Pharisees and all others in authority 
was very bitter; but the details of the controversy, 
or any overt acts arising therefrom, are, as we have 
before said, carefully suppressed. Of Christ's 
trial, there is too meagre an account to justify us 
in the formation of any judgment as to the equity 
of the sentence that culminated in his execution. 
We learn incidentally he so offended the Jewish 
iS4 



Supernatural Qonttptionu 

authorities that they deemed him more criminal 
than a robber; in their eyes he had desecrated the 
Temple. If his offence was only a dereliction from 
the established religion, here are innumerable re- 
cent examples under Christian dispensation of exe- 
cutions for a like offence. 

Christ was tried before a Roman tribunal, that 
would not have condemned him for a religious of- 
fence against the Jewish authority if nothing else 
was brought against him. Christian tradition de- 
clares that the witnesses against him were false, 
although little is recorded of what was proved, 
but they do admit that there was no rebutting evi- 
dence offered, and that Christ acknowledged to 
Pilate that he had claimed to be "the King of the 
Jews." For this offence alone he was executed, so 
far as the record shows. By what "cantrip sleight" 
his followers could build up the theory that he 
died for the salvation of man, especially for men in 
after-ages, with which the event had no logical 
connection, is cause for amazement, while the 
dogma involves the barbaric tenet of human sac- 
rifice, such as was practised in the Mexican relig- 
ion when that country was discovered. 

Founded on this legend of human sacrifice, — 
however perpetuated, — this sect sprang up and 

155 



gained strength in that chaos of political evolutions 
and theological isms, during the later Roman Em- 
pire. It nourished under the patronage of Hadrian, 
coupled with the adhesive fanaticism of its fol- 
lowers ; and finally attracted the notice of Constan- 
tine, who was at that time in a controversy with 
the dominant priesthood. He took this rising 
sect under his protection, for political reasons, and 
established its power. The controversy about Con- 
stantine's conversion is unfortunate for Christian- 
ity, as his infamous character added but little pres- 
tige to it in a moral point of view. His policy in 
establishing the power of this sect was the curse of 
Europe throughout the dark age of its history, up 
to the time when knowledge and science — of 
which it was the pronounced and active foe — 
gained a partial victory over it through many 
martyrs. 1 Fortunately, liberty of thought has 
gained an independence and right, not due to any 
teaching of Christianity, but to the triumph of the 
veritable truths of science, and the promulgation 
of the right to investigate all subjects, and announce 
the facts about them, against any taboo of the 
theologians. 

1 Of this we have a full account from the laborious researches 
of that learned historian, the Hon. Andrew D. White. 

156 



Sttpewattttal <&outtption& 

As dogmatic power was acquired, doctrines were 
formulated by rival factions in the Christian Church ; 
all clamoring for the right to regulate belief in 
accordance with the interpretations of their sev- 
eral sects, which arose even in the first century. 
This produced acrimonious feuds, each sect striv- 
ing for ascendency in the warfare that finally cul- 
minated in the domination of the Roman Church, — 
Providence being, as usual, on the side of the domi- 
nant faction. That Church governed all Europe 
for centuries with a beastly fanaticism, till at last 
nature displayed to the unsuppressible mind of 
men truths that dogmatism could not refute, al- 
though their first announcement brought implaca- 
ble punishment upon the audacious offenders. 

Singularly enough, one of the most virulent feuds 
in the Church was about the status of Christ. One 
sect believed him to be a divinely inspired son of 
man, as he invariably declared himself to be, and 
that he was secondary to God the Father, being 
subject to his will, as he said he was. The adverse 
sect claimed that he was equal, coexistent, and 
very God, from the beginning of time, as is asserted 
in St. John's Gospel. 

The mystical sayings of the Gospel of St. John 
(whoever that writer may have been) are the source 

i57 



of innumerable interpretations, which they have 
received from learned theologians and fervent lay- 
men without number, each interpreting to suit 
his own creed. The fact would seem to be that 
the Gospel was concocted by a mystic, filled with 
the errant traditions of Christ, who wrote out his 
own metaphysical interpretations, with nebulous 
historical accounts for a basis. The whole at- 
mosphere of that Gospel is so radically different 
from the other Gospels, and so full of metaphys- 
ical rhapsodies, as to show a rescript of the author's 
cogitations rather than a statement of facts. The 
interpretation of this book has been a rich working 
mine for theologians; it gives them scope ad lib- 
itum to develop sectarianisms of adverse char- 
acter, all established by some weird sayings, the 
author of which is unknown 

The Gospel according to St. John was evidently 
written to sustain the dogma first announced by 
St. Paul, who antagonized St. Peter and most of 
the disciples of Christ. Paul expanded the Jewish 
Messiah into a deity embracing the whole human 
race. He abnegated the rite of circumcision that 
every believing Jew held to be indispensable, and 
without which Christ could not have obtained a 
following. 

158 



Sttjmruattttal eoiutjitioug 

This Gospel begins with a mystical appellation 
to designate Christ. The author goes on to claim 
for him attributes and powers that Christ himself 
never claimed, making him, instead of God the 
Father, the creator of all things; centring life 
even in him. This unwarranted elevation of Christ 
is the foundation of the subsequent enigmatical 
doctrine of the Trinity, and is not confirmed by any 
recorded expression of Christ. 

The generation of Jesus related in Matthew is 
ignored in John; the subject was evidently too 
mundane to receive the notice of this rhapsodic- 
ally metaphysical writer, who introduces him as 
the Word through John, whose name is appended 
to the Gospel. 

John's unique garb is not alluded to, but he is 
made to announce the advent of Christ, as infinitely 
superior to him. The appellation of Messiah is 
ignored in this statement, but he makes John ex- 
claim, on seeing Jesus, " Behold the Lamb of 
God, which taketh away the sins of the world." 
No such expression is found in any of the other 
Gospels. It is the theology of Paul, not of Jesus. 

The advent of the apostles is made to commence 
at this time, quite differently from the other accounts, 
when Nathaniel is made to say, ' ' Thou art the Son 

i59 



2Tf)t ©tiflttt Of 

of God; thou art the King of Israel." Jesus tells 
him he shall see greater things than the fig-tree; 
that, " Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the 
angels of God ascending and descending upon the 
Son of Man." r 

The introduction of the episode of the marriage 
in Cana of Galilee was evidently interjected to bring 
Jesus into contact with his mother, no mention 
of which is made elsewhere. Apart from the puerile 
and inconsequent character of the miracle, there is 
abundant evidence that his mother did not believe 
in his divinity. The statement that his mother and 
brethren went with him to Capernaum is either a 
creation of the author, or an unreliable tradition. 
The rejection by Christ of his mother and breth- 
ren is omitted, and the collection of a large host 
of the followers of Jesus, who went with him to 
Jerusalem, where the writer describes him as alone 
driving out of the Temple those who sold oxen 
and sheep and doves, and the changers of money 
sitting : " When he had made a scourge of small 
cords, he drove them all out of the Temple, and 
the sheep and the oxen ; and poured out the changers' 

1 As these boasts, put into the sayings of Jesus, never culumi- 
nated, they have been given a spiritually metaphysical interpreta- 
tion by theologians. 

160 



Suj)*ruatutral (bonttptiom 

money, and overthrew the tables." We have quoted 
this passage at length as a remarkable example 
of suppressio veri, no mention being made of the 
host with him, clearly with the design of exalting 
his hero into a god. There can be no better proof 
of the total unreliability of the author. It is not 
surprising that when, as recorded, Jesus boasted that 
if the Temple in which they were was destroyed, he 
would raise it up in three days, the writer, in ac- 
cordance with a subsequent tradition, attributed 
the saying to allusion by Christ to the resurrec- 
tion of his body ; but that record was written long 
after Christ's death, an afterthought. 

In recording what is assumed to be Christ's 
sayings, we can easily see they were written after 
the consummation of the life of Jesus, such as the 
lifting up of the serpent by Moses compared with 
his execution. Most of the sayings in the third 
chapter of John are but the lucubrations of the 
writer, or vague tradition, of no value as history. 

In the narrative of the Samaritan woman at 
the well, the Jewish proclivity of Jesus comes 
fully out, in which the national prejudice is appar- 
ent. When he was teaching among his neighbors, 
they said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, 
whose father and mother we know? How is it 
161 



2Ti)e ©tiflin of 

then that he saith I came down from heaven?" 
This was said by those who knew him, and his 
father and mother; if they had ever heard of his 
miraculous conception, they would not have thus 
spoken. 

We will not comment on the cannibalistic pic- 
ture in the sixth chapter ; it may be construed to suit 
the faith of those who believe in the divinity of 
the record. He sometimes alienated his followers 
by his sayings. When he told them, ' ' No man can 
come unto me except it were given unto him of my 
Father," many of his followers went back and 
walked no more with him. He asks his disciples 
if they will go away, but they stood by him. At 
that time he kept out of Judea in Galilee, fearing 
the Jews would kill him. The seventh, eighth, 
ninth, and tenth chapters of John are filled with 
sayings, altercations, bickerings, and boastings, 
but no word of teaching, the point being, that all 
that believed that he was divine were good, all others 
were sinners; while on the part of the Jews his 
pretension to be the son of God was blasphemy. 
It is more than doubtful if the declaration of the 
Son of Man means, even in John, that he was the 
son of God, any more than all good men are; only 
that as he was assumed to be most perfect, he was 
162 



more emphatically entitled to the cognomen. But 
we are here trenching on ground we would avoid; 
we do not intend to engage in the war of the theo- 
logians; the author of John was evidently on the 
side of Christ's divinity, although he records a 
number of sayings that refute it. 

The entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, seated on 
an ass, as related in John, differs in time, and radi- 
cally in manner, from the other Gospels, showing 
the dubious character of the legend; but it dis- 
plays him in the role of ' ' King of the Jews." The 
attempt of the writer to weaken that demonstra- 
tion by ignoring the army of invaders with Jesus, 
in recording the supernatural, is not successful. 
Jesus, accompanied by a host of followers, invaded 
Jerusalem and the Temple, to the surprise of the 
priests and the people. This is toned down by 
John into a casual meeting of the people gathered 
for another purpose, who incidentally heard of his 
coming, and flocked out to meet him; but this 
version is traversed by the other Gospels. The 
separating his entry into Jerusalem from his host 
of followers and his driving out the occupants of 
the Temple alone was evidently for the purpose 
of magnifying his puissance by the statement that 
he alone drove them out. 

163 



2CJje ©tifliti of 

The dictum attributed to Christ in the twenty- 
fourth verse of the twelfth chapter would not be 
accepted as truth by modern agriculturists ; it is an 
error of speech uttered to illustrate self-abnega- 
tion. If a belief in Jesus was essential to salvation 
it was unfortunate that the fulfilment of the saying 
of Esaias was a bar to the belief of those who were 
present with him; but the pains taken to fulfil 
ancient prophecies throughout the New Testa- 
ment is a proof that it was considered important. 

No attribute is more strongly declared in this 
Gospel than that all who believe undoubtingly on 
Christ shall have the power to work miracles. 
He himself is made to declare it in repeated say- 
ings; yet no one pretends that any such power 
exists in modern times, except a few unprincipled 
charlatans, that in every age are found deceiving 
the credulous, aided by a very universal belief in 
the existence of miracles in past ages. 

Throughout the whole Gospel of John the say- 
ings are self-laudatory, and are intended to bind 
the followers of Jesus to his personality rather than 
to any specific line of morals, to follow his example ; 
while but little is recorded of his acts except his 
miracles, benefiting certain individuals with whom 
he chanced to come in contact, of whom noth- 
164 



Supernatural (bonttptiom 

ing is subsequently related. He certainly did not 
originate any great work to benefit mankind. The 
great purpose seems to have been his proselyting, 
as well as that of his followers. We hear of no marked 
change in civilization of his followers over their 
compeers. The whole body of the Gospels' theol- 
ogy is comprised in the third verse of the seven- 
teenth chapter, "This is life eternal, that they 
might know thee the only true God, and Jesus 
Christ, whom thou hast sent." Jesus is made in 
John to say, " I have finished the work which 
thou gavest me to do." What work did he accom- 
plish ? At his death he left a few poor, ignorant fish- 
ermen, whose neophytes numbered but a small frac- 
tion of the Jewish people. Until the conversion 
of Paul, — that happened after Christ's death, — 
there was no attempt by Christ's disciples to dis- 
seminate his doctrine among Gentile people. The 
churches beyond Judea were all circumcised Jews, 
but Paul seeing the deleterious effect of such a 
limited restriction, after some contention with the 
original adherents of Christ, succeeded in estab- 
lishing a new dogma that Christ died for all man- 
kind who believed him to be divine. This version 
of Christ's mission the writer of John's Gospel has 
attempted to sustain by his weird defining of 

165 



Stye Obvisiu of 

Christ, in language only to be interpreted by learned 
metaphysicians, and assigning to him what he 
evidently never dreamed of, — the creation of the 
universe. Such preposterous sayings we can hardly 
attribute to Christ; they are evidently the morbid 
lucubrations of their fanatical author. 

When Jesus had finished his acts of self-lauda- 
tion in the Temple that so offended the Jews, he 
was expelled therefrom; as the writer mildly ex- 
presses it, "he went forth with his disciples over 
the brook Cedron, where there was a garden, 
into which he entered." That this was a place of 
hiding to which he escaped is made manifest by 
the statement that " Judas, who betrayed him, knew 
of this place," and went there accompanied by a 
band of men and officers, with lanterns, torches, 
and weapons, showing it was by night, when, as 
Judas knew, he would not be strongly guarded; 
notwithstanding the weakness of his guard, they 
did attempt resistance, which Judas evidently 
expected, as he brought an armed force with him. 
The band had a captain and officers, who took 
Jesus and bound him and led him away. 

After a somewhat minute relation of incidents 
before the high priest, and the episode of Peter, 
who had been given the keys of heaven, denying 
166 



Supernatural (fronttptiom 

any knowledge of him, there is but a meagre account 
of the trial of Jesus before the high priest and 
Pilate, — the most important crisis in Christian 
history, — leaving the event in a nebulous state 
best adapted to the imaginative construction of 
subsequent believers. 

Jesus had evidently in the eyes of the Jews dese- 
crated the Temple with his host of followers that 
the authorities were for a time unable to resist. 
This was deemed by them a heinous crime which 
they had no power to punish; so he was turned 
over to the Roman governor upon the charge of 
trying to make himself King of the Jews in dere- 
liction of Roman law. What the proof was that 
established the charge is not made more clear in 
this than in the preceding Gospels; and while 
Pilate might not have thought the insurrection 
formidable, he evidently considered it worthy of 
death, especially as under Jewish law he would 
have been executed for taking possession of the 
Temple. But Pilate meant to have it clearly under- 
stood that Jesus was not executed for any infringe- 
ment of Jewish law, but for an infraction of the Ro- 
man law, by assuming to be King of the Jews. This 
he emphasized by a legend in three languages 
displayed on the cross, that all might understand. 

167 



2Cfje (©irfflfn of 

The author of this Gospel introduces an episode 
which, if there were no other proof, would clearly 
show the total unreliability of this record ; he states 
that the mother of Jesus and his disciple stood by 
the cross with two other Marys, and Jesus con- 
versed with them, while the other Gospels omit all 
mention of his mother at the execution, but they 
distinctly mention the three Marys, of whom his 
mother was not one, that " stood afar off," evi- 
dently too far to speak with him ; and we know that 
under Roman rule his relatives would not have been 
allowed to approach him; and further, the husband 
of Mary and her children living were probably bet- 
ter able and more likely to care for her than any 
disciple of Christ would be. 

The Roman Church inculcates the dogma that 
" the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy 
Ghost is God," and yet there are not three Gods, 
but only one God. This mystic triune God is still 
adopted by a majority of the Christian sects, and 
although common sense repels the contradiction, 
faith unreasoning accepts it and theologians teach 
it. This inconceivable dogma was combated by 
some of the earliest Christians, but the weight of 
power was against them; and after fearful martyr- 
dom they were silenced. That was established in 
1 68 



Supernatural <&QtittptioM 

an age when fire and fagots were more potent ar- 
guments than reason. In later days the heresy that 
Christ was subordinate and the emissary of God is 
now allowed a place unmolested through the ame- 
liorating influence of modern civilization that an 
earlier Christian age would not have tolerated. 
The struggle to make three persons, each a very 
God, one God, was a fearful strain on common 
sense controlled by faith, which appears to the un- 
biassed onlooker like credulity and superstition. 

While the role of iconoclast is undesirable, and an 
offence to worshippers, never inuring beneficially or 
happily to an earnest and sincere destroyer of the 
idols of those for whose benefit and welfare he is 
seeking, he receives for his reward vituperation and 
slander. But if the present civilized world is in 
this new country to make a distinguished advance 
in science and the elevating morals of high culture, 
it must abandon the fetish of the Hebrew God and 
the superstitious worship of his immaculate Son; 
and with them the fables of supernatural appear- 
ances, miracles, and revelations, that have all origi- 
nated in the fertile human brain, bewildered by 
multiplex supernatural phenomena that have been, 
and still are, promulgated. 

Waiving further details of the anomalous tradi- 
169 



©D* <&viQln of 

tional record of the life of Christ found in the Bible, 
that has for so many centuries dominated the belief 
of the most advanced nations, unsupported by any 
collateral or contemporary evidence, which still 
maintains a place in the educated world due to the 
aberration of early education (a formidable antag- 
onist to independent thought and investigation) ; 
aided by a reluctance to disturb the established 
order of things that for centuries has been control- 
ling the thoughts and acts of men ; and the fear that 
it might create disorganization in the social world 
by destroying the current interests, established priv- 
ileges, and prerogatives of individual, national, and 
preeminently the theological organizations. 

So far has persistent iteration and reiteration 
claimed the Christian religion as a synonym for 
goodness and virtue, and the guardian of morality, 
that it is generally believed in by Christians, while 
the converse is asserted to be immorality and abom- 
ination. An examination of this claim by unbiassed 
and disinterested investigation will show that a belief 
in the divinity of Christ has no relation to morals, 
as has been fully shown in the annals of the dark 
ages of European history. The corrupt Popish su- 
premacy — the horrors of the Inquisition — and the 
prolonged struggle of knowledge and truth for a 

170 



Supernatural (fronttptiom 

place in the world, with the antagonism and acts of 
the churches against liberalism, have proved peril- 
ous to the champions of free thought. 

If Christianity now appears in the r6le of morality 
and philanthropy, it derives its true status of mod- 
ern goodness, not from its teachings displayed when 
it had full power, but from modern science declar- 
ing independence for thought. It has now changed 
its tactics, that required submission to its dogmas 
by force of implacable punishment, and is compelled 
to content itself with ostracism and moral suasion 
generally, for its opponents in this country, thanks 
to the foresight of the founders of our independence. 
But even here there are restless bigots that are cov- 
ertly striving to drag the government into a recog- 
nition of their dogmas for a national religion, 
against which the founders of the Republic care- 
fully guarded the Constitution. The sinister attacks 
of Christian dogmatists heretofore on the policy of 
nations have been the cause of many, if not most, 
of the wars that have disturbed the peace of the 
world. 



171 



©!)* ©tijjttl of 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE AND RULE 

It is interesting to inquire what the fundamental 
doctrines are that form the basis of the varied 
Christian beliefs. We are met here with an endless 
confusion of dogmas, that have most of them passed 
through the fire of persecution, vituperation, chas- 
tisement, and anathema from fellow Christians, for 
believing, or not believing, certain creeds or tenets 
deemed essential to salvation. As the times for 
penalties to life and limb for adverse opinions have 
gone out of fashion, and fines and imprisonment 
have nearly disappeared for transgressing canoni- 
cal laws, we may venture to look a little into the 
present Christian cults, well knowing that we may 
be criticized by the numerous sectarians, each of 
whose several creeds is assumed to be the true 
one. 

Christianity has no raison (PStre if the story in 
172 



Stmmiattttal <£ouujitious 

Genesis is not true, wherein Adam and Eve ate the 
fruit from the forbidden tree in search of knowl- 
edge of good and evil, that God especially desired 
they should not acquire. If there had been no orig- 
inal sin, a Redeemer would have been unnecessary. 
Why this temptation should have been put in the 
way of the beings God had made in his own image, 
if he intended to keep them in ignorance, is an 
enigma, but, stranger still, why he should desire to 
keep them in ignorance of good and evil is a prob- 
lem quite too deep for us to solve. We leave it to 
the theologians, knowing that it is a dogma strictly 
adhered to at least by the Roman Church, followed 
by Protestants generally, with facile casuistry when 
uncomfortable truths antagonize their doctrines. 
The tenet of original sin through Adam's disobedi- 
ence is a fundamental proposition upon which the 
religion of Christianity is founded ; hence, the neces- 
sity for a Redeemer, a Saviour. 

The Jews' tradition that a Messiah would appear 
to redeem them from the thraldom of a foreign 
ruler was not a redemption from God's wrath, but 
from the power of men. Christ assumed, as the 
record shows, to be the promised Messiah, and was 
hailed as such by his followers; "a great multi- 
tude " shouting, and announcing him as " King of 
i73 



Eftt ©rifliti of 

the Jews." With regal status he entered the Tem- 
ple with an army of followers, and drove out its oc- 
cupants, as we have seen, much to the horror of the 
priests and others in authority. He declared that 
he came for the salvation of the Jews alone, and 
grudgingly performed a miracle for an outsider. 

He believed the Babylonian account of the crea- 
tion copied in the Jewish Scriptures was true, as 
well as the wondrous tales of the prophets and 
kings. While he announced himself to be the " Son 
of Man," he in no case claimed a miraculous pro- 
genitor. If he was a descendant of David, as it is 
claimed he was, he must have been Joseph's son, as 
he was declared to be by his mother, and was under- 
stood to be by others. He began his public career 
as " king " in Jerusalem, and his mission was on 
Jewish territory during his short active life. The 
meagre record tells but little except his preaching 
and his miracles, although crowds are reported as 
following him. All overt acts committed by them 
under his sanction were failures, and are carefully 
omitted. We only know incidentally from his own 
lips that he came for war, not peace, indicating a 
fierce civil contest, and his subsequent acts were 
deemed sufficiently criminal to merit death, which 
was awarded him by the Roman governor. The 
i74 



character given of his offence, which was blazoned 
upon his cross, shows that he tried to inaugurate a 
kingdom. His utterances after his cause was lost, 
if correctly reported, avail nothing in explanation 
or expiation of his guilt. The healings and resur- 
rections recorded of him are more numerous than 
those of modern Christian Scientists, — even Mrs. 
Eddy herself and the numerous herd of uneducated 
healers that have beguiled the credulous in modern 
times have not exceeded him. 

After Christ had been some time dead, a sect of 
Nazarenes sprang up under the leadership of Paul 
that began to deify him, and in that superstitious 
age they magnified him into a god. The dogma 
was propounded that as all the world had sinned 
through Adam, to the great offending of God, Christ 
came to redeem it, and reconcile the offended Father 
with his offending people, after innumerable nations 
had come and gone. Strange as this dogma is, they 
went still further and, in accordance with the doc- 
trine of the Jews and other barbarous nations, they 
attributed a sacrifice of blood necessary for salva- 
tion, to account for Christ's execution, and claimed 
that he laid down his life to save sinners ; while their 
acknowledged and received tradition showed that 
he laid down his life for assuming to be " King of 

*75 



£fje <&vi£in of 

the Jews," and had taken active means to make 
himself so. 

The theory that Jesus died for sinners is made 
a fundamental doctrine; and prayers and suppli- 
cations go up to-day to " the Saviour who died for 
our sins." In order to glorify him, much spiritual 
and metaphysical glamour has been made to sur- 
round a very plain tale; and the intellectual abil- 
ity of many of the highest, purest, and most tran- 
scendent minds has been exhausted in aggrandiz- 
ing him. The unaccountable phases of human 
hallucination frequently cause surprise to those 
who approach the mental problem from distinctly 
different points of view. We often hear the high- 
est expositions of morals and culture, from men 
whose learning and clear perception of the best 
achievements of man have been acquired from 
profound personal observation, preached from in- 
consequent Bible texts, under the hallucination that 
the inspiration came from the divine words of an 
unknown author, whose knowledge and ability 
were as far below the modern teacher as is the 
distance in time between them. 1 

1 1 once saw an exposition of this in a sermon, written to prove 
the fallibility of inspiration from Biblical texts, which was de- 
veloped from the old nursery rhyme, "Jack and Jill." This text 
176 



Supernatural eotuevtious 

There is not a person in these times, having a 
knowledge of the admitted facts of science, who 
does not know that the account of the creation in 
Genesis, and especially so much of it as relates to 
the creation of man, is fabulous, as it does not 
agree with the known truths of the world's history. 
All efforts to reconcile it with fact, such as the 
puerile attempt to construe the day of Genesis 
into an indefinite period of time, are too prepos- 
terous for argument. So of the " sons of God" 
cohabiting with the daughters of men, to produce 
an abnormal race that never existed. That old 
fable was rife in legends antecedent to the Hebrew 
account thousands of years. With such evidence 
as every schoolboy possesses, the fabulous char- 
acter of Genesis is shown. Yet the Christian 
world clings to the God there depicted, with the 

was very closely adhered to, but expanded into a symbolic pre- 
sentation of human life, its aspirations and failures. The present 
civilization attained by modern culture is not, and never could 
have been, developed from Christianity. It is the outcome of 
independent thought bursting through the trammels of religion's 
bigotry, from which the present advance in a knowledge of na- 
ture and the universe produces a higher standard of humanity 
that is now developing. Of the real creator, or first cause, we 
know nothing beyond its visible works, — it certainly was not 
the God of the Jews, nor was it possessed of any of the mutable 
or vacillating attributes ascribed to that God. 

177 



JJTJ)* ©rifliti of 

steadfastness of a Hindu Brahman; for upon it 
rests the whole foundation for the assumption of 
the divinity of Christ, and his conjectured mission. 

No wise man objects to any teaching of goodness 
that may be found in the Bible. It is the false 
God, stained with crimes and wickedness, that 
disfigures it with myths of supernatural, mystical, 
and barbarously fanatical events, that are the 
crude figments of the brains of uncultivated men, 
which should be eliminated from belief, stultify- 
ing as they do the noblest efforts to enfranchise 
the human mind. 

The strange and illogical doctrine that one man 
can sin for another, coupled with the equally ab- 
surd conception that one man by his crucifixion, 
for what his judges and his executioners believed 
to be his crimes, could thereby free men from their 
sins, seems to the unbiassed mind of common 
sense to be so preposterous as to require no argu- 
ment to refute it. But the superstition still lingers, 
that the "word of God," as the Bible is called, is 
of divine origin and is infallibly true; and for that 
reason must be believed, however much common 
sense rebels against it. This is strenuously con- 
troverted, but "reason is fallible," say the the- 
ologians, and we are thus encountered by the para- 
178 



doxical problem of a seemingly false and absurd 
tradition, handed down to us through ages of primi- 
tive fallible men with an authority not to be ques- 
tioned by an enlightened era of fallible men, whose 
knowledge of the universe is transcendently greater 
than the authors or propagators of the nebulous 
record. A keen observer of anthropological phe- 
nomena remarks that one of the most singular 
things in a museum devoted to that science is the 
wonderful tendency of the human mind, when once 
it has got into a groove, to stick there; the object 
of scientific investigation is to run counter to that 
tendency. 

The deluge of healings, miracles, resurrections, 
and other wonders brought in to embellish the his- 
tory of "God's chosen people" were of such com- 
mon, every-day repetition in ancient times as to 
lose their improbability in uncultivated minds 
before the era of Christ's life, and ceased to be 
doubtful phenomena to the crowd of believers 
who it is assumed witnessed them. The epidemic 
of devils, which is happily extinguished as a disease 
in modern times, was then so fearfully prevalent 
as to enable Christ to perform his most strikingly 
characteristic miracles. 

This strange and illogical religion was intro- 
179 



W§t ©trfflfn of 

duced and perpetuated by the strong arm of power, 
crushing out every vestige of opposition, adverse 
proof, and criticism attempted; until the burst- 
ing forth of scientific discovery ultimately severed 
the bonds that confined the human mind within 
the shackles of authority, under penalty of death. 
Now, through the persistent force of accumulated 
acknowledge and demonstrated facts, we are en- 
abled to investigate unmolested, except by ostra- 
cism and vituperation, every problem and fact 
discovered by emancipated research, so long anath- 
ematized as sacrilegious. 

We have seen in man's earliest contact with 
nature, that his endowment of ratiocination 
prompted him to inquire into the cause of the vis- 
ible phenomena by which he was surrounded, 
and to search for the cause of the various objects, 
good and bad, with which he came in contact. 
This prompted him to picture in his imagination 
a superior being invisible to him, of vast powers, 
capable of producing works so much beyond his 
comprehension. In the course of time numerous 
strange and unaccountable appearances produced 
in him a belief in the supernatural, that assisted 
his imagination through the phenomena of dreams, 
which materialized in his brain into real entities 
180 



Supernatural erouctpttous 

that took shape as gods and devils, in accordance 
with the originator's power of thought; thus de- 
veloping hallucinations of miracles, revelations, 
and other wonders with which such beings were 
assumed to be endowed. It is a significant fact 
that no such phenomena have ever taken place 
within the personal knowledge of any unbiassed, 
enlightened, intelligent, and truthful individual 
now living; they never happen at the present day 
in the face of impartial investigation, but only in 
the traditionary past. 

There is no authoritative record of Christ known 
of earlier date than the second century after his 
death; certainly none of the copies of the Gospels 
extant were written before that time. They are 
chronicles named for, and claimed to be accord- 
ing to, certain disciples, by unknown authors. 

There is a persistent effort to connect the Chris- 
tian dogma with all the modern acts of philanthropy, 
charity, and education (to which we have seen it 
was an early foe), together with all the amenities 
of modern culture, that are the fruits of neoteric 
advancement in science, dominating all branches 
that are connected with social economy. Many 
noble men and women are firm believers in Chris- 
tian doctrine, and are desirous to glorify it by their 

181 



&%* ©tiflfn of 

self-sacrificing and benevolent acts; but the true 
impulse comes from their own refined natures, 
aided by the experience they have attained from 
the spread of true knowledge and science, that 
shows them their just relations to the world, and 
their place in it, imparting to them a clearer insight 
into the real claims, duties, and rights of mankind 
toward their fellow men, which they unwittingly 
attribute to Christianity. 

In all ages, and in every known religion, there 
have been enthusiasts and martyrs. Innumera- 
ble devotees have yielded up their lives rather 
than abjure the dogmas they believed to be true; 
while their executioners, quite as fanatical, thought 
they served God by destroying them. We are 
still cursed with the residuum retained by religion 
that pervades many sects. Some men have immo- 
lated themselves without regard to the logical 
consequences, or the good or evil to the rest of 
the world, all to glorify God; as if their acts could 
do so. In this particular the Hindus, and many 
savage tribes, exceed the Christians; but the hor- 
rors of martyrdom inflicted by the Christian Church 
have equalled, if they have not surpassed, all other 
religions. Such persecutions continued down to 
the days of the evolution of modern science, that 
182 



Sujimiatuval ©otuejjtious 

included with its battle for the cosmology of the 
universe a war for the freedom of thought. 

The contest for the emancipation of mankind is 
not over yet. The fanatical religionists are still 
persistent here, urging the Congress and State 
legislatures to pass ecclesiastical and sumptuary 
laws; which they have succeeded in doing in Sab- 
batarian and other like legislation, in direct con- 
travention of the Constitution of the United States 
and the Declaration of Independence. The framers 
of the Constitution took care to keep out of it a 
declaration that this was a Christian nation, or 
that we had any national religion. They de- 
clared that every one should have the right to wor- 
ship as his conscience dictated, whatever his relig- 
ion might be. But this right has been ruthlessly 
trampled on in most of the States, and by Congress. 
By enacting Sunday restrictions, for which they 
have not the plea of their God's command : by such 
legislation they outrage the rights of seventh-day 
Christians, Jews, and all other religionists who 
keep other days of the week holy, and who be- 
lieve they have God's command to work on Sun- 
day. The law compelling them to observe the 
Christian Sunday under penalty for its trans- 
gression clearly violates their rights. But this is 

183 



2TJ)t ©trtfltn of 

not all: the fanatics, not content with freedom 
to worship their God, unmolested, as their con- 
science dictates, are striving, not openly but co- 
vertly, to bind the nation to the adoption of their 
religion, and bring the government under their 
domination. When that is accomplished can any 
one doubt, if either of the Christian sects gains 
ascendency (the Roman Catholic, for instance), 
that it will expunge all the others if it has the power, 
as it has done in former times ? 

Our forefathers had the wisdom to see that re- 
ligious controversy was a fruitful source of most 
of the wars and contentions of the world; and 
they determined to eliminate that cause from this 
land of liberty. They consequently ignored it in 
the Constitution, and cut off the right to legislate 
on that subject. This paved the way to real lib- 
erty, and with it real peace. But we see a con- 
stant creeping in of seemingly harmless innova- 
tions. As God is not named in the Constitution, 
a legend has been put upon our coin, "In God 
we trust." From a Christian point of view this 
should be sacrilegious; from an agnostic point 
of view it is silly and unmeaning. To place the 
legend upon medals is a question of aesthetic taste, 
but to blazon upon " filthy lucre" the hallowed 
184 



Sttjifvuatttral &<mttptiQU& 

name of God, to be bandied about by the most 
depraved, whose motto would be, "In grog we 
trust," to be passed over barroom counters by inebri- 
ate ruffians for their drinks, is more than question- 
able. This same holy legend is also made the pur- 
veyor that secures a welcome in bawdy houses and 
gambling dens ; and is nowhere more fervently wor- 
shipped than by burglars and pickpockets, to say 
nothing of its power to lure innocence from virtue. 
It may well be asked what good this legend is ex- 
pected to effect by being placed upon the coin of 
the realm. The conspirators did not expect any, 
per se, but hoped to enter the thin point of a wedge 
into legislation, by which they could drive home 
the whole body of sectarianism, and finally to be 
strong enough to enforce religious legislation upon 
the people, which is expressly prohibited by the 
Constitution. The world has had a dire experi- 
ence under ecclesiastical rule, and should guard 
against the peril of a repetition of it. Such sinis- 
ter chicanery is characteristic of religious dogma- 
tists, against whom all liberty-lovers should keep 
careful guard in future legislation. 

The curse of all nations has been theologic rule. 
The attempt to govern the thoughts and acts of 
men by creeds and dogmas, enacting laws in ac- 

185 



cordance with the particular creed of the major- 
ity, and forcing others to comply with their nar- 
row tenets, is the outcome of bigotry, constantly 
attempted, and should be carefully guarded against. 
In former times any dereliction from the prescribed 
rule was visited with penalties of the most rancor- 
ous type; often inflicted on persons of the pur- 
est character, whose consciences would not permit 
them to comply with the laws of their ecclesiasti- 
cal oppressors. In a city under the rule of the 
Scottish Kirk (that has been called the wickedest 
city in the world), beadles searched the streets 
on Sunday during religious services to arrest all 
persons found out in the thoroughfares, and com- 
pelled them to attend religious services. Penal- 
ties have been enacted against all secular employ- 
ment on Sunday in modern states under Chris- 
tian domination, in imitation of the old Levitical 
law regarding the Sabbath (Saturday), which most 
Christians disobey. For this there is no pretence 
of divine command, such as the Jews claim for 
their Sabbath. All interference with the rights 
of man is demoralizing; and being religious leg- 
islation, it is forbidden by the Constitution. This 
is of no avail, however, against the rulings of a 
sectarian court. The attempt to make men good 
186 



Sttjimiatttral <&onttptiam 

by legislative act is abortive. Goodness has its 
seat in the intellect, and does not consist in acts 
of worship, or the observance of a holy day fic- 
titiously appointed by a politician. Until the 
intellect is reached, no reform is possible; and all 
constraining and restraining laws, except those 
that prevent men from harming their fellow men, 
are reprehensible. 

It is said that the Emperor Napoleon declared 
that France would become either republican or 
Cossack. It can be said with equal certainty that 
the United States will free itself from Christian 
domination, or it will be governed by the Roman 
Church under the rule of a Roman Pope, as is 
now boastfully asserted by Romish priests. That 
will end the constitutional liberty of the people. 

While showing in this incomplete sketch, upon 
which volumes might be written, that the evolu- 
tion of the human mind is based upon and directed 
by the observation of its natural surroundings, 
evolved from man's powers of ratiocination, there 
is no admissible evidence that he ever received 
any extraneous aid from a supernatural source. 
History is full of wise, just, and profound sayings, 
uttered in the earliest stages of man's escape from 
barbarism; brilliant flashes of intellect emanated 

187 



©f)t ©tifltn of 

from dull clouds of popular concepts. These shin- 
ing meteors of ancient thought were comprehen- 
sible by men without divine interpretation, and 
served to advance them on their way to correct 
knowledge. Many of the authors of these teach- 
ings were worshipped for the assumption of divine 
revelations. 

Buddha, an epithet meaning the Wise or En- 
lightened One, whose advent is variously esti- 
mated from noo to 600 b. c, was a teacher whose 
doctrines still control the belief of a larger body 
of sectarians than does any other religion of the 
present day. There is a remarkable coincidence 
between the history of this great teacher and Christ's 
advent, which has been clearly told by Dr. Felix 
S. Oswald, whose version I shall follow, noting that 
this religion was established long before the era 
of Christ, and was in his day well known through- 
out the East. 

Buddha, like Christ, was of royal lineage; he 
was born of a mother who, though married, was 
still a virgin. The birth of a future Saviour (Bud- 
dha) was announced by a heavenly messenger. 
An apparition which Maya (Buddha's mother) 
sees in a dream informs her, " Thou shalt be filled 
with highest joy. Behold thou shalt bring forth 
188 



a son bearing the mystic signs of Buddha, who shall 
become a sacrifice for the dwellers of the earth, 
a Saviour who to all men shall give joy and glori- 
ous fruits of immortality" (Rgya. Cherrol-pan., 
61, 62). At the request of Maya, King Sudo- 
dhana renounced his connubial rights till she had 
brought forth her first son (Rgya., 69, 82). 

The immortals of the Tushita-Heaven decide 
that Buddha shall be born when the " flower star" 
makes its first appearance in the east (Lefmann, 
21, 124). A host of angelic messengers descend 
and announce tidings of great joy. " A hero, 
glorious and incomparable, has been born, a Sa- 
viour unto all nations of the earth ! A deliverer has 
brought joy and peace to earth and heaven " (Lotus, 
102, 114; Rgya., 89, 97). Princes and wise Brah- 
mans appear with gifts and worship the child 
Buddha (Rgya., 97, 113). The Brahman Asita, 
to whom the spirit has revealed the advent of Bud- 
dha, descends from his hermitage on the Hima- 
laya to see the new-born child. He predicts the 
coming of the kingdom of heaven, and Buddha's 
mission to save and enlighten the world (Sutta 
Nipatha, iiill). The Allinish Kramana Sutra re- 
lates that the King of Magada instructed one of 
his ministers to institute an inquiry whether any 
189 



&!>* ©tfflfn of 

inhabitant of his kingdom could possibly become 
powerful enough to endanger the safety of his 
throne. Two spies are sent out; one of them as- 
certains the birth of Buddha, and advises the king 
to take steps for the extermination of his tribe. 
The princes of the Sacya tribe urge the king to 
present his son in a public assembly of nobles and 
priests. Spirits accompany the march of the pro- 
cession; inspired prophets extol the future glory 
of the Messiah. Buddha's parents miss the boy 
one day, and after a long search for him find him 
in an assembly of holy Rishis, who listen to his 
discourse and marvel at his understanding (Bud- 
dhist Birth Stories, 64). Buddha, before enter- 
ing on his mission, meets the Brahman Rudraka, 
a mighty preacher, who, however, offers to become 
his disciple. 

Some of Rudraka's followers secede to Buddha, 
but leave him when they find that he does not 
observe the fasts. Buddha retires to the solitude 
of Usuvilva, and fasts and prays in the desert until 
hunger forces him to leave his retreat (Rgya., 
364; Oldenburg's Mahavagga, 116). After fin- 
ishing his fast, Buddha takes a bath in the river 
Nairanjana; when he leaves the water, purified, 
the devas open the gates of heaven and cover him 
190 



with a shower of fragrant flowers (Rgya., 259). 
During Buddha's fast in the desert, Mara, the 
prince of darkness, approaches him and tempts 
him with promises of wealth and earthly glory. 
Buddha rejects this offer by quoting passages of 
the Vedas, and the tempter flees, and angels de- 
scend and salute Buddha (Dhammwadam, vii., 
33). There are numerous other parallels between 
the two accounts equally striking, such as Judas 
among his disciples, the woman at the well, and 
the tremblings of the earth at his death. 

This brief synopsis of the legend of Buddha 
needs no comment, but is significant when com- 
pared with the Christian legend written six hun- 
dred years afterward. If it had been written six 
hundred years after Christ, we should unhesita- 
tingly pronounce it a plagiarism on the Bible ac- 
count. The inexorable fact cuts off that argu- 
ment. 

Confucius was a moralist of high attainments, 
born some six hundred years before our era. His 
teachings served to concentrate and perpetuate 
the oldest civilization in the world, that has con- 
tinued to the present day; numbering more in- 
habitants under one government than any other 
nation. Confucius taught, according to his writ- 
191 



&J)t <&viQin of 

ings, obedience to the sovereign power; and in 
the relation of children to parents, and the young 
to their elders, deference and obedience was taught 
as a cardinal virtue. This is more strictly enjoined 
and practised in China than in Christian lands, 
extending to a devotion to the memory of their 
hallowed ancestors as a national usage. 

The Mohammedan religion, that arose in the 
fifth century of our era, lays claim, as did all its 
predecessors, to a divine origin. In the revelations 
recorded in the Koran a high morality was taught, 
in accordance with the civilization of the times and 
attendant usages. The conception of the deity 
was less complex and ambiguous than that of the 
Christians. God is defined in the shortest chap- 
ter of the Koran (chap, cxii.) : " Say, God is one 
God, the eternal God; he begetteth not, neither 
is he begotten ; and there is not any one like him." 
This emphasizes the marked dissent of the Mo- 
hammedans from the Christian " Son of God." 
This faith, coming nearly six hundred years after 
Christ, attained a much more extended and rapid 
dissemination, with quite as pronounced and fer- 
vent worshippers. Mohammedanism spread east- 
ward among a mystic and warlike people, unpro- 
gressive in domestic arts, but highly impressiona- 
192 



ble; while the western course of the Christian 
dogma was also spread, by force of dominant 
power, through settled populations, active, indus- 
trious and progressive, with a spirit irrepressible 
and inventive; a people that would eventually 
burst the bonds of fanaticism, which hampered 
thought and action. The result was the investi- 
gation of nature that the persistent efforts of re- 
ligion could not suppress, which demonstrated the 
errors of the infallible Church, that soon split into 
many sects warring against each other, and against 
all scientific investigators that were seeking to 
expose the error of trying to restrict human knowl- 
edge attained by a careful study of nature, which 
their religion forbade; suppressing all efforts for 
the acquirement of knowledge untrammelled by 
tradition or supernatural agency. The warfare 
for knowledge slowly but surely advanced the 
European world in the enfranchisement of free 
investigation, and a disillusion as to the power of 
the Church to dominate and control men's thoughts. 
The war of science upon the vested rights of 
theology has achieved an advancement in civil- 
ization and correct knowledge, with a fading away 
of the superstition and intolerance that disfigured 
Christianity down to recent times. This elevated 
*93 



Europe and America above the older nations of 
the world. The merit for it is now claimed by 
theologians as due to Christianity, that fought so 
hard to repress it, by martyrizing its scientific 
opponents and forbidding research into the laws 
of nature. This charge may be brought against 
most of the Christian sects, of whose persecutions 
and intolerance we may name the iron grip of the 
Roman Church in the height of its power through 
the dark ages of the history of Europe, with its 
Inquisition, auto da fe, et cetera, to which other 
sects played a good second. This should warn 
people against the chance of their repetition; the 
imprisonment for conscience' sake, with fines, 
hanging, drowning, scourging of Quakers, and 
ostracism by the English Church (much of which 
was repeated in this country); the Calvinistic 
barbarisms of Geneva and the Scottish Kirk, that 
taught, " The master of a family may, and ought 
to, deny an act of humanity or hospitality to stran- 
gers that are false teachers. The Holy Ghost for- 
biddeth the master of every Christian family to 
own a heretic as a guest. We hold that tolera- 
tion of all religions is not far from blasphemy." 1 

1 Rutherford's Disputation against pretended liberty of con- 
science. 

194 



When the Scottish Kirk was at the height of its 
power, we may search history in vain for any in- 
stitution that exceeded it in fanatical barbarity, 
except the Spanish Inquisition. All this shows 
how little Christianity had to do with modern cul- 
ture. Toleration and the highest benevolence and 
morality were unknown to them. 

History shows us that since the establishment 
of Christianity there was no special enlightenment 
of the human race where it predominated, till the 
victories of science over it, about the seventeenth 
century, above nations having other faiths. The 
Mohammedans of Cordova in Spain were far 
above their Christian contemporaries in civiliza- 
tion, learning, and refinement; through them a 
new era of advancement pervaded Europe in learn- 
ing and the arts of civil culture, that taught the 
Christian nations a higher civilization. 



'95 



£*)* teviain of 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE CHRISTIAN DOGMAS 

With the foregoing statement of facts before us, 
we will briefly examine the sectarian dogmas that 
have developed from this strange enigmatical re- 
ligion. Without going into the long and complex 
theological warfare that distracted the Christians 
in the early centuries of its predominance, it is suffi- 
cient for our purpose to note that the Roman 
Church succeeded in gaining the mastery in west- 
ern Europe, while the Greek Church prevailed 
in the east. The dogmas elaborated by the fathers 
of the religion are often contradictory and illogi- 
cal. 

The belief of the Roman Church is declared au- 
thoritatively at the present day to be this : " There 
is but one God, a pure spirit without a body, con- 
sisting of three persons, the Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost, neither of which is older or greater than 
the others; all are equal; the Son became man. 
196 



Supernatural (fronttptiom 

God created angels — each one of us has a guard- 
ian angel; some of the angels sinned, and were 
changed into devils, and were condemned to hell 
forever, where all go who die in mortal sin. Our 
first parents, Adam and Eve, committed sin by 
eating in the garden of Paradise the fruit which 
God had forbidden that they might show their 
love and obedience to him — the devil tempted 
them. They confessed their sin, repented, and 
were forgiven. God did not let them stay in Para- 
dise — they had to do penance on earth, which 
God cursed; on account of this curse the earth 
brings forth thorns and weeds. They died in 
consequence of that sin (if they had not sinned 
no one would have to die). They went into limbo, 
and were taken into heaven by Jesus Christ our 
Saviour." " Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and 
the son of the blessed Virgin Mary. He was born 
on Christmas Day, in a stable at Bethlehem. He 
lived over thirty years, and died on Good Friday, 
to save us. His soul descended into limbo — 
where the saints who died before him were that 
did not go to heaven after death, as it was closed 
against all men on account of the sin of our first 
parents" (some four thousand years before). " He 
rose on Easter Sunday, never more to die; and 

197 



&De ©rtfltti of 

ascended into heaven forty days thereafter on 
Ascension Thursday, and is there now in the blessed 
sacrament of the altar. He will come on the last 
day to judge all men — for they shall rise again 
in their bodies. He appointed twelve apostles, 
and chose St. Peter to be the head of the twelve. 
Christ said, * Thou art Peter — the rock — and 
on this rock I will build my Church.' J The Bishop 
of Rome, our holy Father, the Pope, now takes his 
place. Our Lord established only one Church, 
the Holy Catholic Church, and made its head 
infallible, incapable oj teaching falsehood. 2 

"No one can be saved out of the Church — out of 
which there is no salvation. Sins are of two kinds, 
mortal and venal; a mortal sin is the wilful break- 
ing of the law of God in an important point, because 
it kills the grace of God out of the soul. A venal 
sin is a breaking of law in some less important 
point. Those who die in mortal sin go to hell 
for all eternity — those who die in venal sin, or 
have not satisfied God's justice for mortal sins 
forgiven, go to purgatory, where souls can be 
helped by prayer, penance, alms and other good 

1 See Matthew, Chap. 16, v. 23. 

2 See Galileo's suppression for teaching what the infallible Pope 
had declared as false, the rotation of the world. 

198 



Sttperuatttval Conceptions 

works, by indulgence, and especially by holy mass. 1 
To leave the true Church is a mortal or deadly 
sin, and to omit going to mass. Sunday is kept 
holy by the law of the Catholic Church. Sab- 
bath is Saturday, kept holy in the old law. Jesus 
empowered the Catholic Church to change the day 
oj rest jrom Saturday to Sunday. 2 He empowered 
his Church to make laws binding in conscience. 
The Catholic Church abolished not only the Sab- 
bath, but all the Jewish festivals, and appointed 
others in their place." 

" The holy eucharist, or blessed sacrament, is the 
body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ of- 
fered up under the appearance of bread and wine" — 
appearances are what we can see, taste, and touch. 
" The priest changes the bread and wine during 
holy mass. Mass is the sacrifice of the body and 
blood of Christ offered up under the appearance of 
bread and wine." " At the offertory the priest offers 
bread and wine to God. At the consecration he 

1 All the rest of mankind go to hell, of course ! What a rich 
source of profit for the priests ! 

2 This change was made by the Emperor Constantine. For 
three hundred years after Christ, Christians kept the Sabbath 
under Jewish law, until Constantine, the infamous Roman em- 
peror, changed it ; that Christ empowered the change is utterly 
untrue. 

199 



an&e ©vfflin of 

changes the bread and wine into the body and blood 
of Christ. At the communion he receives the body 
and blood of Christ." 

" The most wonderful powers possessed by the 
priest are the power to change bread and wine into 
the body and blood of Christ, and the power to for- 
give sins. Jesus gave this power to the apostles and 
their successors in the priesthood." (New Mission 
Book, 1896. St. Louis.) 

I have given an extended quotation, taken from an 
authorized source, of the religion formulated from 
the Hebrew and Christian Testaments by the old- 
est and most numerous Christian sect now extant. 
It was evidently systematized to awe and frighten 
its catechumens into submission to its authority and 
dogmas, which are never criticized by those who 
have been taught to uphold faith above reason; 
hence we see the radically illogical statement that 
contradictory language cannot exceed, of three per- 
sons all equal in origin and functions, each person 
being very and entire God, and yet but one God; 
not a Godhead composed of three persons, — that 
could be comprehended, — but the Trinity is a 
mystery involving three in one, in which reason 
must be cast aside to enable faith to attain belief. 
Faith has another assumed fact to encounter in this 
200 



Sttfletuatttral Conceptions 

connection, that the Son is as old as the Father, no 
less an unintelligible enigma than the other, and 
both undoubtedly devised to evade the ancient con- 
ception of a multiplicity of gods, while elevating the 
Son to a perfect equality with the Father, which in 
the Gospels he strenuously denies. 

Another enigma appears in this record. After 
Adam and Eve sinned, they confessed in true Roman 
Catholic style and were forgiven; they submitted to 
the penance imposed on them, were forgiven, and 
died. This it would seem should justly end the mat- 
ter, but the avowed result did not confirm that 
assumption. Their progeny were involved and had 
to incur the penalty of death; which but for that sin 
of our first parents, with which we had nothing to 
do, we would be exempt from. Thus, it is declared, 
this original sin has to be expiated by beings born 
thousands of years after the original sinners had 
their faults condoned, and on their part pardoned. 
This inheritance of the sin of our first parents, for 
which they had received pardon, incurred the ne- 
cessity of a redeemer. This office was volunteered 
by one of the persons of the indivisible God, who 
came down from heaven and was incarnated, suf- 
fering great agony, that another person of the indi- 
visible God might be placated; for which act this 
201 



8Cfj* (teviQin of 

indivisible person of the Godhead has been wor- 
shipped and glorified more than the Father himself, 
with lasting glory and honor from all true believers 
of the human race, not one-tenth part of whom has 
ever heard of him, and cannot therefore do him rever- 
ence, while of those who have heard his name, and 
believe in him as their Saviour, only a fraction can, 
according to the Roman Church, ever enter into the 
abode of eternal happiness. It would be a nice 
ethnogenic and theologic question whether death 
is a punishment or a blessing, apart from the fact 
that death was a law of nature before Adam was 
born, and that it was undoubtedly essential to per- 
mit a continuance of new creations. Much as we 
revere the ancient sages and wise men, we must 
realize that they would be a great bore, very much 
in the way, and would retard rather than advance 
modern thought and civilization if still living; 
while the accumulation of human life would dis- 
tract a modern Malthusian. But it is useless to 
point out to its neophytes the illogical vagaries of 
a still active belief. It may be well to note the truly 
theological priestcraft and elaborated organization, 
controlled by ages of experience in adapting this 
creed to the credulity of men, for the benefit of the 
clergy, and the aggrandizement of priests, bishops, 
202 



&u»tVMtut%l <&ontt»tiom 

and Pope in one consolidated hierarchy. The 
scheme is inimitable. Under the cloak of goodness, 
self-abnegation, and assumption of patriarchal care 
of men's souls, that is made to appear so disinter- 
ested it bars with iron will all investigation, by 
threats of eternal punishment, terrifying the be- 
liever, but unsubstantial as ambient air. Until 
men can be divested of a belief in the fabulous idea 
of a supernatural power, miracles, revelations from 
God, and all other unnatural aids, logical argu- 
ment will fail with them. 

The Protestant English Church, an offspring of 
the Roman, differs from it by pruning off some of 
its crudest features of superstition, but retaining the 
mystical doctrine of the Trinity in a somewhat 
modified form. It declares, " There is but one liv- 
ing and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, 
or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, goodness; 
the maker and preserver of all things. In unity of 
this Godhead there be three persons of one sub 
stance, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The Son 
is the Word of the Father from everlasting by the 
Father, the very and eternal God, and of one sub- 
stance with the Father; took man's nature of the 
Blessed Virgin, of her substance; so that the two 
whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the God- 
203 



SJje ©trfflfn of 

head and manhood, were joined together in one per- 
son, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very 
God, and very man, who truly suffered, was cruci- 
fied, dead, and buried to reconcile his Father to us, 
and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but 
also for actual sins of men. As Christ died and was 
buried, so also it is believed he went down into hell, 
and did truly rise again, and took his body, with 
fleshy bones, and all things appertaining to the per- 
fection of man's nature, wherewith he ascended 
into heaven, and there sitteth, until he return to 
judge all men at the last day." " The Holy Ghost, 
proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one 
substance, majesty, and glory with them, very and 
eternal God." * 

The doctrine of original sin differs from the Ro- 
manists', but is essentially the same. Of free-will it 
is asserted that " Man since the fall of Adam can- 
not turn and prepare himself by his own natural 
strength and good works, without the grace of God 
by faith in the merit of Christ, and not for our own 
works and deservings — good works cannot put 



1 What the difference is between body and substance must be 
left for the theologians to explain. The definition of the Son is 
taken from the rhapsodical Gospel of St. John — very doubtful 
authority, unsustained by the other Gospels. 
204 



Supernatural €mttpttoM 

away sins; if they are done before the grace of 
Christ and his inspiration is attained they are not 
pleasant to God t as they spring not of faith in Jesus 
Christ, and as they are not done as God commanded 
we doubt not but they have the nature of sin." (So 
much for unbelievers' good works.) " No man can 
be saved by following the laws of nature or of an 
adverse sect; there is no salvation but in the name 
of Jesus Christ." (Bad for those who never heard 
of him.) 

The churches of Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, 
and Rome are criticized in their living ceremonies, 
and their matters of faith — transubstantiation and 
purgatory of the Romanists are condemned as 
errors. 

In this summary of the English Church we note 
quite as much mystery about the Godhead as in the 
Roman; a striving to elevate the Son to a position 
coeval with the Father; and developing contradic- 
tions of the most glaring character, that defy com- 
mon sense and reason. One person of the God- 
head offers himself as a sacrifice to reconcile an- 
other person of the Godhead, and placate his wrath 
against mankind, clearly establishing the fact that 
they were not of one mind. (The Father's motive 
for vengeance seems to have been imitated by Saw- 
205 



2Tfje <&viQiu of 

ney, who " beat Neddy the donkey because Neddy's 
father kicked I.") As the English Church repudiates 
purgatory, or limbo, it had to send Christ to the 
real hell, and on his resurrection he took to heaven 
with him the flesh and bones in which he was clad 
on earth, thus developing certain facts that seem to 
be repudiated in other parts of the creed, wherein 
God is declared to be " without form or parts," 
which would seem to our degenerate senses to indi- 
cate Christ's retention of properties quite inapposite 
in heaven; such an act of supererogation must have 
seemed cumbersome among pure spirits, and to 
have so individualized him as to apparently jeop- 
ardize the unity of the Godhead. This episode, 
however, gives a foundation for the impossible 
dogma of the resurrection of the bodies of men at 
the judgment day, and was useful in forming the 
creed. 

When Luther broke from the Roman Church in 
the beginning of the sixteenth century, and Henry 
VIII. repudiated it in England about the same 
time, the doctrine of the Trinity was retained by 
them with all its contradictions, reminding one of 
the dictum of Tertullian, A. d. 200) : " I maintain 
that the ' Son of God ' was born ; why am not I 
ashamed of maintaining such a thing ? Why ! but 
206 



Sttjiawattttral eimetptioug 

because it is in itself a shameful thing. I maintain 
that the Son of God died ; well, that is wholly cred- 
ible, because it is monstrously absurd. I maintain 
that after having been buried he rose again; and 
that I take to be true because it is manifestly im- 
possible." (Taylor's Sintagma, p. 106.) 

All the Christian sects believing in the dogma of 
the Trinity adhere to the same anomalous impossi- 
bility. There are other sects who, perceiving that 
the impossible metaphysical dogma is contrary to 
human reason, have substituted a more plausible 
and rational interpretation, retaining the funda- 
mental belief in Christ the " Son of Man " as 
Teacher, Redeemer, and Saviour. It was remarked 
by Blanco White that few people would be attracted 
to the Christian faith by the history, or life of Christ 
and his doings. 

It is the nebulous spiritualism, that can be ex- 
panded and contracted to suit the time and occa- 
sion, the hopes and fears of reward and punish- 
ment in the cloudy future of eternity, utterly be- 
yond knowledge, proof, or refutation, that looms 
up dark and portentous or bright with sunburst 
illumination, luring men on with strange imagin- 
ings, without apprehending their illusive and 
evanescent character. The unimpeachable axiom 
207 



£fje ©tiffin of 

that no being with human attributes ever received 
a revelation from a supernatural intelligence, or 
ever did, or can, originate, perform or cause any 
superhuman act beyond the normal powers of 
men in their highest cultivation, is unassailable 
by any admissible proof from man's experience 
since the era of his scientific investigation. 



208 



Supernatural eomejitiouB 



CHAPTER X. 

CHRISTIANITY COMPARED 

From the foregoing outline of the development 
of human thought before the Christian era, and 
the creeds and dogmas evolved from its teachings, 
many of the rich details of philosophic acquire- 
ment and the high moral aims of man in his ad- 
vancement toward correct knowledge have been 
necessarily omitted in the compass prescribed in 
this exposition. This is less to be regretted as 
each stage of ancient culture and thought has been 
elaborated by more learned and able chroniclers. 
My object has been to show that the Christian 
dogma has no greater claim to a divine origin than 
its predecessors. We may therefore venture to 
investigate its assumption of greater morality and 
higher spiritualism. 

To any one who is cognizant of the acts of im- 
molation and self-abnegation of the Hindus and 
other Eastern sects, in the development of their 
209 



Wfyt ©vtflin of 

faiths, and before which the Christian religion 
is dwarfed, in immolation as a proof of divine ori- 
gin, the changes wrought in the nations embrac- 
ing Confucian teaching and Buddhist proselyting 
are more marked, successful, and of longer dura- 
tion than anything effected by Christianity. They 
embrace greater numbers, with a stricter observ- 
ance of their doctrines. This also applies to Mo- 
hammedanism. The Moslem is much more strict 
in the daily observance of the requirements of 
his faith, which has extended to more people, 
and in a shorter time than Christianity can claim. 

If a comparison of piety and spiritualism is made 
we find the followers of Confucius displaying a 
profound respect for parents and seniors, such as 
we look for in vain among Christians, and a rev- 
erence for ancestors that Christian missionaries 
construe into worship; displaying a profoundly 
filial veneration that forms a part of their relig- 
ion. The nation embracing these religious faiths 
is the oldest extant in the world, and it contains 
the greatest number of homogeneous people under 
a single government. Through its influence this 
densely populated nation maintained order, and 
sustained a civilization and love of letters, until 
the Christian invasion that disturbed its peace and 



culture, to which the Western world was a stranger 
up to the fifteenth century. 

The nations of Europe opposed each other with 
rival creeds, the outcome of antagonistic Chris- 
tian dogmas, and in the attrition of war they be- 
came stalwart and individually bellicose. An- 
tagonism begot a diversity of ideas, and men began 
to inquire into the secrets of nature, forbidden 
by their religion; while science commenced, feebly 
at first, to attain its rights, which the Church la- 
bored to suppress. At that time European civil- 
ization was in no way advanced beyond the Ori- 
ent, then slumbering in peaceful seclusion, oblivi- 
ous to the turmoils of the outside barbarians, as 
it designated the Europeans; and we must confess 
not without reason. 

The battles between Science and the Christian 
Churches — graphically told by the Hon. A. D. 
White — developed thought with unprecedented 
rapidity; the dawn of the rights of mankind glim- 
mered with faint light above the horizon, that the 
clouds of superstition strove to blot out; but the 
light of scientific truth pierced through them, 
and although they are not yet wholly dispersed, 
they have failed to obliterate its pure effulgence. 

From the great influence of this awakening the 

211 



ffiije ©vifliit of 

arts and commerce began to flourish; the rights 
of man began to be recognized; and the Euro- 
pean world advanced toward a higher civilization 
— not yet wholly attained owing to the still potent 
retardation of religious superstition. Free thought 
and equity having been advanced by the advent 
of scientific culture, and a more correct knowledge 
of the universe, in which we live and form a part; 
a better understanding of the laws that govern it 
has also been partly attained, on which a higher 
erudition has been founded. 

Theologians are contending for the Christian 
dogma as the originator of modern civilization, 
while history shows it to have been its bitterest 
enemy, and most violent opponent. Now, when 
the truths of science are established, they cap the 
climax of stupendous assumption by claiming 
that science and Christian dogma are in accord, 
science being construed in a way to adapt it to 
the modem interpretations of Christianity made 
to accord with proved facts, to establish their har- 
mony. Now that science with well-founded knowl- 
edge and freedom of thought has emancipated 
men from the thraldom and shackles of the mid- 
dle ages, and advanced the European nations 
beyond the Eastern, the Christians are empow- 

212 



Stijjetuattttral <&outt#Uou# 

ered by the knowledge thus attained to dictate 
and control their intercourse with them. This 
has unfortunately given to Christian missionaries 
an opportunity to impertinently obtrude themselves 
into a civilization they are too ignorant to under- 
stand, with assumptions as offensive as they are 
unwarranted. 

The result is, as it always has been since his- 
toric time, religious dogma brings bloodshed and 
war, in which the European, with more belli- 
cose training, is likely to come off the victor; 
while the devout missionary, propagating conten- 
tion, gives thanks to his God for his kindly 
protecting arm that shields him against the 
infidel. 

The missionaries proclaim themselves followers 
of the " Prince of Peace," and that the barbarous 
acts of the middle ages, and the dark deeds of the 
Christian Church, were not the fruits of Christ's 
teaching; but Christ told his disciples plainly that 
he came not to bring peace but a sword; and to 
set relatives against each other, sons against fath- 
ers, daughters against mothers, and a man's ene- 
mies should be those of his own household, — a 
doctrine very different from that of Confu- 
cius or Buddha. This may explain the differ- 
213 



&D* ©trffltn of 

ence between the pugnacious qualities of theii 
followers. 1 

So long as men believe that miracles and super- 
natural occurrences ever existed, they will be de- 
barred from asserting that they do not now occur. 
It is preposterous to assume that such things were 
possible in a more primitive age of the world, 
and that they are not now achievable, when men 
are so much better qualified to judge of and com- 
prehend their significance. A miracle or abnormal 
physical result, accomplished by any other than 
natural means, does not agree with our present 
knowledge acquired by scientific investigation. 
Is the proof of those wonders described in ancient 
writ commensurate with their exceptional char- 
acter? The innumerable delusions into which 
many good, earnest, wise, and learned men versed 
in the culture attainable in the past centuries fall, 
and the credulity of the unlearned population 
who believe in visions, magic, and witchcraft, 

1 Jesus said (Matt, x, 34 et seq.) : " Think not that I am 
come to send peace on earth ; I came not to send peace but a 
sword," evidently meaning that in claiming to be the Messiah of 
the Jews and striving to make himself king, in a " Kingdom of 
Heaven," to be inaugurated in Judea, he would stir up war and 
contention, the division of families and destruction of natural ties 
in religious and political dissension which would be very bitter. 
214 



Supernatural <&outtptiom 

with the erroneous interpretations of natural phe- 
nomena derived from former ages, shown to be 
fallacious before the light of modern science, clearly 
prove that no reliance can be placed on them. 
We trace the source of modern superstitions in the 
current belief in ancient miracles, and supernat- 
ural demonstrations rife in Biblical lore, that are 
still retained in present theologies; thus furnish- 
ing a basis for all the wild vagaries in modern in- 
terpretations of mental phenomena, of which we 
yet have imperfect knowledge. 

There is no more proof of the verity of the Chris- 
tian Scriptures than there is for the recorded myths 
of earlier religious legends. The Gospels were 
probably composed from the oral traditions of 
credulous men, written many years after their 
assumed occurrence; they rest upon their own 
averment alone, substantiated by no contem- 
porary authority. They have been established in 
human belief a much shorter time than most of the 
Eastern religions ; and fewer people are now under 
their influence, after earnest proselyting and strin- 
gent enforcement, for nearly two thousand years, 
under the assumption of divine authority. 

These Scriptures are replete with crude mysti- 
cisms and errant statements of impossibilities 

215 



(as science can now demonstrate), cataclysms in 
nature displayed for ephemeral purposes, or for 
the simple exaltation of their God, who is por- 
trayed as a vacillating being, dissuaded from his 
purpose by the calmer wisdom of man, and vio- 
lating all we know of immutable law. 

A most remarkable naivete* is shown in the New 
Testament by the frequent declaration that sev- 
eral acts were performed for the special purpose 
that the prophesies in the Old Testament might 
be fulfilled ! On turning to the prophecies referred 
to it would often take an interpreter more profound 
than a priestess of Delphian oracle to decipher 
their connection with the subsequent events as- 
sumed to be their fulfilment; notwithstanding the 
pains taken to fulfil them by purposely enacting 
what they were construed to mean, ages after they 
were assumed to have been uttered. 

However vivid its fond imaginings of heaven 
or terrifying its pictures of hell may be, they are 
the mere phantoms of primitive conceit. The 
familiar appellation of father so exultantly claimed 
by Christians is a natural cognomen used in all 
religions to indicate the near relationship to man 
of the power, or cause, that originated the uni- 
verse; of which in imaginative phrase we are the 
216 



Supernatural <&ontt»tiom 

children. This cause, however, as God, Jehovah, 
Jove, or Lord, or by whatever other name desig- 
nated, is entirely beyond the capacity of the human 
brain, or any human vocabulary, to define, — 

" Extending far up above our realms of thought 
And deep below our micrographic art," — 

displaying to us a transcendent impersonality that 
dwarfs all the gods of feeble human invention, with 
their heavens, demigods, angels, and demons, into 
insignificant phantasms. 

The elevating contemplation of all the wonders 
that we know and are now striving to intelligently 
comprehend, with the consciousness that we pos- 
sess mental power in excess of all other created 
beings around us, should be incentive enough to 
avail ourselves of all the intellect we possess in 
forwarding the world's knowledge, for the advance- 
ment, amelioration, and happiness of ourselves 
and our fellow men. But few persons are so stolid 
that they will not respond to a new discovery that 
benefits them physically and mentally. Every 
such discovery is an incentive to new exertions, 
instead of waiting on " divine Providence." No 
fable of the ancients is more pregnant with sound 
philosophy than that of Hercules and the Wag- 
oner — " put your own shoulder to the wheel " 
217 



©lie i&viQiu of 

instead of calling upon God, who has given you 
all the aid he ever will, in the intellect with which 
you are endowed. Be grateful if you will for your 
present status; but to expect special aid by pray- 
ing for it is a waste of time in idolatry. 

Good and evil come by the immutable laws of 
cause and effect, which may be directed and con- 
trolled in some particulars by man's own energies 
in comprehending them; but never by inducing 
their originator to modify or subvert them. 

In the psychological study of human experience 
and traditions by the light of modern scientific 
methods, the wonders of ancient legends of the 
supernatural and miraculous " divine revela- 
tions " are easily accounted for. We need only 
to trace the course in modern times of the fading 
out of a belief in ghosts, hobgoblins, fairies, — 
signs and wonders in which our forefathers placed 
implicit reliance, now generally decided to be mere 
fancies of the brain retained only by the credu- 
lous ignorant, which a better knowledge has shown 
the impossibility of. 

While in the present age a belief in the supernat- 
ural is weakening, being entirely repudiated by 
learned scientists, yet it still maintains a controlling 
influence and authority in what are called Chris- 
218 



&u»tvwtuvul Qonttptiom 

tian nations, so potent as to retard the free avowal 
of adverse views by a large number of those who 
deny the truth of the dogmas on which so much 
time, money, and legislation are expended, which 
often begets a passive assent from those who — 
whatever the reason may be — prefer to avoid a 
collision with the organized powers and vested 
legal organizations in control of political legisla- 
tion. 

It has been remarked by a learned professor of 
psychology that " everywhere there is a yearning 
for the mysterious, which seems at different epochs 
to flare up and spread into true epidemics, utterly 
consuming all the foundations of logic and com- 
mon sense in the white heat of emotional fervor 
with which they advance. It seems not to matter 
how trivial, how absurd, how vulgar, how igno- 
rant, or how improbable the manifestations may 
be, the passion for belief in their mysterious origin 
sets all reason aside." Such a state of mental 
hallucination is only rendered possible by the 
teachings and belief in a spirit world that is invisi- 
ble to mortal eyes, in conjunction with the tangi- 
ble in this world, as inculcated by present theo- 
logical dogmas, of which there is no proof except 
that which is derived from legendary myths, and 

219 



Stye ©ttflttt of 

the mind's eye of fanaticism, that are not sub- 
ject to logical reasoning with those who believe 
in the existence of a sphere of heavenly spirits. 

In ancient times there was — and unfortu- 
nately there now is — a belief that God is placated 
by prayer, and modifies or changes the course of 
nature by the supplications of his worshippers. 
We are still painfully astounded by the spectacle 
of a nation offering up prayers for rain in time of 
drought, for relief from suffering in time of griev- 
ous pestilence and famines — and the antagoni- 
zing prayers on both sides of belligerent nations. 
We would fain counsel the supplicants like Her- 
cules in the fable, " Put your own shoulder to the 
work," instead of praying for supernatural aid 
that will not by praying be given you. If man 
cannot counteract or ameliorate the wants and 
deficiencies occasioned by nature's course, he 
must suffer the consequences, for he will never 
be aided by prayer to cause a change in the un- 
deviating laws that govern the universe. If in- 
stead of wasting time in vain supplications men 
would study the laws that govern their being, and 
learn the cause of adverse phenomena, which can 
often be counteracted by such knowledge, disas- 
ter would be avoided; while by passive suppli- 
220 



Supernatural Qonttptiow 

cation they may ignorantly aggravate the evil 
they seek to avert. 

Scientific acquirement will better serve the pur- 
poses of amelioration in diminishing the wants 
of humanity than a lifetime of prayer, in min- 
istering to the requirements of man's fellow beings, 
and in aiding the advancement of the world we 
live in, which is the only true devotion. 

If Christianity was simply a plenary code of 
morals, giving instruction in the duties of man 
to his fellow man, indicating how to lead a pure 
and upright life, — of which its theology formed 
no part, — no antagonism would occur ; but to 
require a belief in the divinity of its strange origin 
derived from a would-be " King of the Jews," 
subsequently transformed by tradition from the 
assumed role of the Jewish Messiah into a Re- 
deemer and universal Saviour of men, induces 
friction; unfortunately the dogma goes much 
further, and introduces a vengeful element, chain- 
ing men down by their fears of perdition for un- 
belief, to the Juggernaut car of its diabolic tradi- 
tions, with terrifying pictures of fiendish judg- 
ments, that have served to make men the cruel 
persecutors of their fellow men down to a recent 
day. 

221 



The metaphysics and mysticism of St. John's 
Gospel, so unlike the other biographers of Christ, 
and that atrocious book called " Revelation, " 
attributed to the same author, have been the source 
from which fanatics and sensational preachers 
draw the material for their fiendish descriptions 
and pictures, intended to agonize faith-ridden 
men and God-fearing women; while it only ex- 
cited the derision of the thoughtless and the dis- 
gust of sensible thinkers. It has produced more 
doubt, trepidation, death-bed suffering, crazing, 
and suicide than could be compensated for by 
all the joy and comfort it promises the so-called 
elect. The Revelation of St. John, Milton's " Par- 
adise Lost," and the " Inferno " of Dante have 
been the cause of great wretchedness and suffer- 
ing, by misleading unbalanced and susceptible 
people into believing the descriptions from the 
imaginative and poetic fancies of the surcharged 
minds of the authors to be real divine revelations. 



222 



SttjittTuattttral <&outt»tioM 



CHAPTER XI. 



The Revelation of St. John, as it is entitled, 
is probably the dream of a fanatical adherent of 
Paul, if he himself was not its author. It was 
evidently written by the person who wrote the 
Gospel attributed to the same origin, which de- 
picts in mystical language Christ under the cog- 
nomen of " The Word," which description of 
Jesus has no warrant for it, and is at variance with 
the other Gospels. Paul attempted to elevate Jesus 
into the Godhead, and made him a universal Re- 
deemer for all men, instead of a Messiah of the 
Jews, as he declared himself to be; and his dis- 
ciples who were with him universally believed he 
was. 

Paul, who never saw Jesus, in attempting to gain 
followers from the outside world, perceived the 
necessity of enlisting recruits from the other na- 
tions, even though they were uncircumcised, which 
223 



2Mje ©rtflfn of 

was at variance with St. Peter's doctrine, and cre- 
ated a breach in the Church. But the absolute 
necessity of bringing into the fold Gentiles, if the 
religion was to survive (for the Jewish nation would 
not receive it), overcame all objections; so Paul 
succeeded in introducing his newly constructed 
Christian faith, that has dominated all Christen- 
dom to the present day. 

The Revelation is addressed to the seven 
churches in Asia and intended to strengthen their 
faith, with the author's purpose to exalt himself 
in their estimation. There is a subtlety in its adap- 
tation to the faith and prejudices of the churches 
which he was addressing; interposing therewith 
certain messages of peace direct from Christ, and 
seven spirits (just their number) before the throne. 
He relates what he saw in the spirit — notably 
in a dream — which Alpha and Omega ordered 
him to write in a book and send them. He then 
goes on to describe what he was charged to write ; 
followed by a description of heaven as he conceived 
it, in which there was a throne, with One sitting 
on it. To enhance the weird mystery, the author 
avoids naming personages frankly, but speaks 
of Alpha and Omega, meaning Christ, and One, 
meaning God the Father, or rather trying to convey 
224 



Sttiptruatttral <&outtptioM 

something more sublime than anything words can 
express, by uttering the meagre cognomen of One, 
thus attempting, by undefined phrasing, to en- 
hance the sublimity of the narrative. 

We have elsewhere observed that there is an un- 
varying and absolute truth, proving with certainty 
the rule; that no religion or dogma is entitled to 
credence or belief, of divine origin or authority, 
which in any particular antagonizes or contradicts 
the ascertained laws of nature — the cosmos as now 
verified. With this unerring guide we will investigate 
this last book of the Christian Bible, which is ac- 
cepted by most Christian believers, and declared to 
be a divine revelation from God, that the author 
was commanded to write. 

It is needless to discuss the authorship, and its 
date is unimportant. While it has sometimes been 
repudiated, it still holds a place in the canonical 
Scriptures of the present day in the Christian 
churches. It is used, as we have said, by ignorant 
sensational preachers, to terrify their credulous au- 
ditors ; and has been the source of most of the fanat- 
ical doctrines that have destroyed the happiness and 
useful life of thousands of the human race, for 
which reason alone we here give it extended notice. 
It is the very key-note of superstition, emanating 
225 



from a morbid imagination, dealing with the most 
crude and bestial figures; with no high or noble 
aspiration. It does not attain the poetical sublim- 
ity or grandeur of the Eastern tales of genii and 
afrites, of the sumptuousness of which the author of 
" Revelation " had no conception. Its dreariness, 
paucity of action, and motive remind us of the di- 
lemma of an intelligent lady, who said that when 
a child she believed she must be irredeemably 
wicked, as she was sure if she went to heaven she 
would tire, and be surfeited with the hallelujahs and 
the eternal playing on harps, which seemed to her 
to involve no intellectuality in it. 

The writer of this so-called " Revelation " shows 
considerable secular wisdom in his messages to the 
churches and the Jews, in his denunciations of 
Babylon, where they were taken in captivity ; a griev- 
ance that occupied so large a share of the time of 
the enthroned One, and his host of satellites, to the 
exclusion of all the rest of mankind. The crucial 
test of the utter groundlessness of this rhapsody of 
a bigoted author is the indisputable fact that he 
pictures heaven as a fixed place, above the stable 
earth, accessible by ascent to it, and, plagiarizing 
from Christ, that the stars — those little sparks of 
light — would fall to the earth; a mere incident 
226 



Supernatural ©oucqmoua 

in the grand pyrotechnics displaying Almighty 
power. The writer's utter ignorance of the uni- 
verse as it is, and the radically false description of 
it, would render the fiction beneath critical notice, 
or the penning a line on so stupid a fable, but for 
the strange hold it still has at the present day on the 
religious belief of intelligent people. It is not ex- 
aggeration to say that this erratic extravaganza has 
done more harm, led to more persecution — un- 
settled more ill-balanced minds, and been the 
source of more idiosyncrasies in religious tenets — 
than any other writing extant; not from its literary 
merits, but from its reception as a revelation from 
God, that forbids human criticism. 

In the attempt of the author of " Revelation " to 
draw an imposing picture of the grandeur and sub- 
limity of heaven he totally fails, by using conven- 
tional human settings, with unartistic grouping of 
men mingled with low, distorted images of beasts 
with horns, having multitudinous eyes, diabolical 
imaginings of natural forms into more heathenish 
shapes than Eastern idols; while the only occupa- 
tion he can find for his saints, angels, or beasts, con- 
sists in genuflections with hallelujahs to the One on 
the throne, accompanied with minstrelsy of harps; 
without an ennobling thought, or moral suggestion; 
227 



2TJ)fr <&viQiU Of 

simply a fulsome worship, accompanied by pyro- 
technic thunders and lightnings. The whole phan- 
tasmagoria seemed to be engaged in vengeance and 
destruction. Among other terrors, a being on a red 
horse is sent to destroy the peace of the world (ami- 
able mission !), with many other heavenly acts, in- 
terspersed with worship and adulation. Such is 
" John's " picture of heaven, unrelieved by a single 
elevating action, with no word of knowledge or 
peace. 

It is amazing that place should be given to this 
crude, puerile excogitation of an unbalanced intel- 
lect, in the religious curriculum of an enlightened 
age. It is stranger yet that men of brains will 
waste their valuable energies in labored disquisi- 
tions on the mystic significance of those cabalistic 
utterances, as if they had any real value in religious 
culture or the advancement of knowledge. 

The evidence is multifarious that the whole 
course of advancement of the human race has been 
obscured and retarded by continuous aberrations 
and mysticisms, engendered by a strife to placate 
the divine origin of our being. From age to age the 
fertile brain of man was teeming with myths and 
legends, concocted from incidents, often misinter- 
preted, in the phenomena of nature ; which, by their 
228 



Supernatural Contentious 

acceptance as truths, misled men into the moral and 
religious vagaries that have afflicted the human race, 
and produced the ever- erring and inefficient religions 
of the world. 

This " Revelation " is notoriously the ne plus ultra 
not only of mysticism, but of absurdity, with no 
redeeming characteristics of morals or philosophy, 
displaying a primitive ignorance that would dis- 
grace a tyro of the present day. What a strange 
thing is a normal human mind that can be warped 
by education into a belief in such unmitigated non- 
sense, in which the writer displays his desire to rule 
the ignorant and fanatical churches he addresses, by 
a claim of authority from God. 



229 



art)* ©vtgtti ot 



CHAPTER XII. 

MIRACLES 

While no attempt is made in this essay to detail 
with minuteness, historically or otherwise, the prog- 
ress of development of the innumerable religions 
that enacted an important part in the progress of 
civilization, or their aid in the advancement of the 
races to their present standing, they were a potent 
factor in the aggregation of men into exclusive com- 
munities, and in estranging them from their fellow 
men. They have been the direct cause of the bit- 
terest feuds, wars, and barbarous persecutions that 
have disgraced the human race, far more potent 
than any other incentive. 

We can assume, without fear or contradiction, 
that the delineation of a perfect God, in accord 
with the ascertained laws of creation, is beyond the 
mental powers of man. Hence, as we have seen, 
all the attempts heretofore made to portray the 
originator of the universe, and the advent of man, 
230 



Sttiimiattttal (frmttpUow 

have been signal failures. The most refined theo- 
logical efforts of the latest Christian civilization are 
but inadequate endeavors to spiritualize the per- 
sonal and humanized God of the Jewish Scriptures, 
who is so indissolubly connected with Jesus Christ, 
the " Saviour " of the Christian sect, that they must 
stand or fall together. 

The legends of the Old Testament, embodied in 
the Christian Bible, were written by men totally ig- 
norant of the cosmology of the universe, and man's 
relation to it ; yet the record is claimed to be divinely 
inspired, and the legend was accepted as true by 
Christ. Hence true, loving, earnest, intelligent 
Christians believe in its divine inspiration, and 
have striven to warp the ambiguous story that ad- 
mits of but one rational interpretation (originally 
believed in by Jews and Christians alike), to har- 
monize it with ascertained facts. Since the wonder- 
ful truths of nature began to be interpreted by 
scientific investigation, the theologians have either 
denied their truth, or striven to interpret the plain 
declarations of the Biblical text into mystical mean- 
ings consonant with the truth. 

The God described in Genesis was a personality, 
and walked on the earth like a man, who was made 
in his image; but, say the theologians, the making 
231 



®§t ©riflin of 

" man in his image " meant a spiritual likeness, 
not a physical one. This is gratuitous, and with- 
out warrant ; it does not accord with his walking in 
the garden of Eden. So again, the clear, unam- 
biguous statement of the creation in six days, too 
positive and precise to admit of question, and con- 
firmed in the " God written " commandments 
(which now ornament the walls of Christian 
churches), that indicate day, beyond all question, 
as the diurnal light and darkness caused by the 
earth's revolution, and preclude the assumption 
that by day an indefinite period of time of illimitable 
length was meant. The explanation is sophistical, 
and is absolutely refuted by the commandments. 
The statement, as it stands in Genesis, we know to 
be unqualifiedly erroneous, disproved by well- 
known facts. 

While the writings of the ancients are filled with 
records of miracles and supernatural manifesta- 
tions, that are vanishing before the light of science, 
an investigation into their causes would be inter- 
esting. There is no unambiguous proof that mir- 
acles were ever materialized; while the negative 
assertion that they never happened cannot be dem- 
onstrated or disproved by evidence, as negative 
proof is unattainable. The denial of their having 
232 



Supernatural QouttptioM 

occurred is based upon our experience of the nat- 
ural order constantly prevailing in modern times, 
under fixed and undeviating rules so far as they 
have been ascertained, in which no digression is 
known to science. 

By the rules of evidence a phenomenon so utterly 
abnormal as a miracle requires the most unques- 
tionable and positive proof, which is now unattain- 
able in regard to ancient legends. The fact is in- 
disputable that the traditions in early writings, 
which have been preserved, are rilled with anoma- 
lous incidents : spiritual appearances, gods, demons, 
and miracles, to suit the story of each religion, such 
as we know do not appear in modern times. The 
appearances recorded were more or less frequent in 
proportion to the primitive character of the record, 
which intensifies the doubt of their truth. 

In examining the probability of the miracles 
described in the New Testament, we shall be greatly 
aided by carefully investigating the occasions on 
which they were manifested; their nature and 
appositeness in the advancement of the mission 
which the " Redeemer " came to fulfil. It is hardly 
conceivable that a divine Saviour of mankind would 
display miracles ad libitum only to exhibit his power 
or credentials from God. If we find any of the 
233 



art)* ©rfflttt of 

exhibitions of his miraculous power were appar- 
ently only employed for revenge, as in the mira- 
cle of the fig-tree, or for social conviviality, as in 
the turning water into wine, the reason for doubt 
is greatly enhanced. 

As we have before written, there is no confirma- 
tory evidence of the miraculous details stated in 
the Bible, and except the Babylonian account of 
the creation, all prior and contemporary historians 
are silent on the subject of the wonders it treats 
of. The style of many of the books, which attempt 
to describe the beginning of history, are of much 
later date than some records now extant, and are 
less primitive in their diction. 

In our exposition of the absolutely baseless 
foundation of the Christian dogma, which arose 
many thousands of years after the aggregation of 
men into nations, that were vastly greater than 
the Jews, with religions, laws, and a civilization 
at least equal to theirs, we note that its advent oc- 
curred in a conquered and insignificant nation, 
whence it could not be readily disseminated, and 
it was limited in its influence for three centuries, 
until patronized by the Emperor Constantine. 

Its propagation was slowly effected by legends 
orally transmitted during the first centuries after 

234 



Christ's death, by ignorant fishermen and others 
of their class. Christ's boast was that his doc- 
trines were not believed in by the wise and pru- 
dent, but were revealed to babes, meaning the 
ignorant, which shows the source from which the 
Gospels were derived. Their promulgation was 
due to the Emperors Hadrian and Constantine, 
for political reasons. 

The result of its enforcement upon Europe cul- 
minated in a dark and backward age, that was 
only dispelled by the advent of science, which the 
conservators of this religion opposed with great 
acrimony. 

From this era doubts arose, expanding into 
agnosticism; uncertain at first, but gradually 
consolidating into the truths of the present day, 
which do not interfere with or question the free- 
dom or right to a belief in any dogma of a future 
state of reward and punishment, or the recogni- 
tion of friends in a region of happiness after death. 
The thought is poetical and sublime; and if it is 
a source of comfort to the living, we would offer 
no contention against the pictures of Paradise or 
heaven, drawn by the most imaginative minds; 
nor an idealization, attempting to define God's 
purposes. Our protest would only be directed 
235 



against the assumption that they are plenary rev- 
elations from God, instead of being, as they are, 
the emanation of man's imagination; embracing 
the denunciatory character of the fiendish, bar- 
barous, and vengeful punishments inculcated, with- 
out a redeemable feature, by ignorant men. 

To us, the indescribably transcendent power 
that brought into existence this vast creation, 
illimitable to human knowledge, elaborated with 
a minuteness man has not yet reached, with beau- 
ties in sight and sound we can marvel at but never 
equal; dispensing joy and happiness within our 
grasp that man's perverted and ignorant reach- 
ing after the impossible prevents him from attain- 
ing: this imparts to us unbounded confidence that 
the future will develop a greater good than our 
limited powers can now compass. We feel a cer- 
tainty that we can acquire no present knowledge 
of the details, and we rest confidently in the be- 
lief that the future will be determined with greater 
perfection than man can now formulate. This 
shows us that the proper occupation of man is 
to study the open book of nature before which he 
is placed, for his true relation to his surroundings, 
by which he may attain the utmost good for him- 
self and his fellow beings, aided by cultivating 
236 



Supernatural QonttptioM 

his truthfulness and benevolence, together with 
kindly social relations, in accordance with the laws 
of his being. Our aim should be to make this 
world better, happier, and more perfect, — for 
it is our present home, — by which we can attain 
greater happiness. The profoundest rule for ac- 
tion in relation to our intercourse with others is 
contained in the maxim of that sapient philos- 
opher, Confucius, " Treat your fellow man as you 
would be treated." Selfishness is the fundamen- 
tal cause of wickedness. 

The strange hallucination that the Omnipotent 
First Cause could be gratified, or placated, or in- 
duced by adulation or worship, with formulated 
prayers and genuflections, into indulgences, or 
plenary forgiveness of sins committed, while it 
has advantages for the depraved, cannot accord 
with sound justice; or annul the fact that a dere- 
liction can only be condoned by correcting the 
wrong, without calling upon supernatural aid, that 
will never be given from any extraneous source, but 
must be righted from our own consciousness. 

The world has had many thousands of years' 
experience in ineffective theological experiment 
in making men good through fear of punishment, 
diverted by subservient worship in imploring su- 

237 



atJje <&viQiu of 

pernatural aid rather than through a fear of doing 
wrong and seeking the right. Too often it has been 
taught that a strict adherence to church formula, 
prayer, and pecuniary gifts placated and condoned 
unrequited wrong. A scientific demonstration of 
right and wrong banishes all such fallacious rea- 
soning. When men can be convinced that unself- 
ishness, truth, and justice, with full liberty to act 
independently of the control of others, so far as 
it does not interfere with their inherent rights, and 
when actions are made to comport with a due 
regard to these axioms, the greatest happiness will 
be attained, and man's highest perfection be 
achieved. To this end all legislation should be 
limited, with no grant of exclusive or exceptional 
privileges to any. 

The question that most concerns the advance 
of American liberty and civilization is the exclu- 
sion guaranteed by the Constitution, of all as- 
cendency by law of any religion over the citizen, 
be he Christian, Mohammedan, Buddhist, Con- 
fucian, deist, or agnostic. In the Constitution 
all control over religion was carefully excluded. 
Notwithstanding this precaution of the framers 
of the instrument made to guard our liberties, 
its intent has been ignored and trampled on by 
238 



Supernatural eoiucjitioug 

Christian legislators, who have enacted penal laws 
that curtail the rights of men in their religious 
belief and legitimate acts, which in no way encroach 
upon the rights of others, or their freedom to en- 
joy like privileges. This encroachment Christian 
sectarians have perpetrated, and they are still ac- 
tively engaged in the subversion of the rights of 
their fellow citizens by the enforcement of Chris- 
tian Sunday laws, and religious tests, subversive 
of the Constitution. 



239 



®%t (BviQin of 



CHAPTER XIII. 

OUR PRESENT KNOWLEDGE 

Having traced in the preceding pages man's 
incentive to worship, developed by his multitudi- 
nous ideas of the originator of the universe described 
in the various stages of his advancement, in which 
he has created from his fruitful imaginings dei- 
ties, supernatural phenomena, spirit worlds, and 
other anomalous and abnormal things which mod- 
ern thought should consign to oblivion, and that 
science has proved to be fallacious, yet there still 
lingers in religious dogmas a primitive adherence 
that is commingled with the highest codes of morals. 

We have endeavored to eliminate the fabulous 
from the true, the useful, and the good, which 
man has educed from his unaided mind, reason- 
ing on the acts and deeds of himself and his fellow 
men, while rejecting the fabulous source to which 
they were attributed. To establish the fact that 
man's intellect alone is the origin from which 
240 



Supernatural (konttptivm 

the highest good is achieved, we must carefully 
examine the most advanced civilization, and the 
source from which it emanated. We have shown 
the frail foundations on which superstition is based, 
and the crudities with which it is filled. While 
we assume this earth is existent, and that some 
power caused its being, we have no conceivable 
idea of the creation or extinction of matter, the 
beginning or end of time, or the beginning and end 
of space; yet these problems must be solved be- 
fore we can have an intelligent knowledge of God, 
or fathom the purpose of creation. 

The dogma that Christ was an emanation from 
heaven to Judea, as a Saviour and Redeemer of 
mankind, involves so many enigmas and contra- 
dictions as to render it a theological maze. To 
decipher this, it has been assumed that the normal 
condition of man, as created, tends to evil ; that he, 
knowing the right, prefers to do wrong; and that, 
after untold centuries of wrong-doing, multitudes 
of nations, cultivated in arts, with profound laws 
governing large communities age upon age, appar- 
ently much more cultivated, and with greater ac- 
quirements than the Jews ever attained, were 
left to their own teachings, until a divine Re- 
deemer never before commissioned was sent to 
241 



8TJ)* ©tiflfn of 

the Jews, not to teach them a higher moral code, 
which he never did, but to expiate the sins of the 
world. And what renders the enigma more pro- 
found, he was sent to a conquered people, under 
the rule of a great nation, with no power to dis- 
seminate his mission. Why this long delay to re- 
deem mankind was deemed essential, and why 
it did not extend, except to a few individual com- 
munities, for hundreds of years, must be left to 
theologians to solve. 

When the Christian religion became dominant 
it was enveloped in feuds and warfare that caused 
persecution and bloodshed; with the final ascend- 
ency of the Roman Church, the relentless rule of 
which led to the retrograde age of darkness, as it 
was called, entirely at variance with common sense 
and our knowledge of right, which lasted until 
the victorious warfare of science emancipated 
thought, and redeemed the world from much of 
its barbarism. It is beyond the power of man 
to conceive God to be impersonal; the attempt 
to disguise this fact by calling him a spirit is fu- 
tile. How does a spirit differ from an entity? 
The aphorism that God is everywhere, in every- 
thing, as Pythagoras defines him, does not elimi- 
nate his personality. The creeds of Christians 
242 



Sttt>ertiatttval (bonttptiom 

declare Christ to be a personality of the God- 
head, the Trinity of personalities. 

While it is natural and logical for man to per- 
sonify an originator, or first cause of the universe, 
and to clothe that power with transcendent at- 
tributes divine, unquestionable proof is neces- 
sary to establish a rational belief that any verbal 
communication was ever made from that source. 
The only admissible proof would be, imparting 
information transcending anything known to, or 
attainable by, the unaided intellect of man. 

In the teachings attributed to Christ there is 
no ethnologic truth or maxim announced that was 
not taught ages before his advent; while some 
of his teachings, undefined by modern Biblicists, 
display doubtful ethics. The assumption that 
Christ came into the world as the Saviour of men, 
teaching a transcendent moral code and religious 
dogma; that he performed miracles, such as heal- 
ing diseases, raising the dead, and countervailing 
nature's laws, is believed by his catechumens. 
These miracles, resting on tradition alone, did not 
convert the learned that it is claimed saw them; 
they were enacted for the benefit of individuals, 
or for present purposes. In no instance did they 
teach intellectual advancement. They seemed 
243 



JKlje Attain af 

only to have been enacted to impress the belief 
of those who witnessed them with the supernatural 
power of him who was afterward declared to be 
the sole redeemer and saviour of men from future 
punishment in another sphere; a salvation to be 
achieved only by a belief that he died to redeem 
the human race. It seems difficult for an uniniti- 
ated investigator to understand any analogy be- 
tween the death of Christ, who was executed for 
assuming to be the " King of the Jews," and the 
salvation of men; a dogma that could be enter- 
tained by those only whose preconceived faith 
controlled their reason. 

If credence in a future life and the recognition 
of departed friends is a source of comfort to those 
who entertain it, no demonstration has been of- 
fered to disprove it; therefore it may be indisput- 
ably entertained and without proof adhered to. 
But if the belief is founded on the authority of 
ancient legends, they are but the creations of men 
far more ignorant than ourselves, and without 
proof that they ever had any more knowledge 
about the future than we possess. 

If a belief in a hereafter diverts men from a laud- 
able endeavor to make the world better, more 
beautiful and happier, it is detrimental to man's 
244 



Supernatural <&onttptiom 

highest mission. Our present service is due for 
the improvement of this world, mankind, and 
ourselves. If we perform our task faithfully here, 
we shall be better fitted to do so in a future exist- 
ence, if we attain it; which will be very monot- 
onous if worship is to be our only occupation, as 
the Revelation of John pictures it, producing no 
advancing result. The laws that govern this uni- 
verse are inexorable; to ignore or attempt to 
change them is reprehensible. By diligently study- 
ing the phenomena of uncontrolled nature, and 
their causes, we may direct and counteract many 
of their detrimental effects, and use them for our 
good; but to beseech an unseen power to change 
or modify them, with the supposition that they 
can be thereby changed, is demoralizing and su- 
perstitious. 

All that is taught in the churches, and elsewhere, 
of unselfish acts, moral and fraternal, in social and 
national brotherhood, and comity in the family 
of nations, must receive the responsive approba- 
tion of every right-minded man. It should be 
clearly understood, however, that our whole duty 
is not accomplished when a sporadic charity is 
bestowed out of the gains we have accumulated 
from the hard labor of the recipients; nor should 

245 



charity, justice, or morality be shackled with re- 
ligious creeds or dogmas. 

One of the most valuable benefactions to the 
coming age would be a clear exposition of the just 
and equitable limits of legislators, in the enactment 
of laws determining and restricting the volition of 
persons in their unrestrained liberty of action; 
and abolishing the power to grant special or ex- 
clusive privileges to any man, or association of 
men, from which others may be excluded. And 
when men's rights are determined, and clearly 
understood, there should be a constitutional bar 
placed upon legislation, to prevent its trespassing 
upon the rights of all to acquire equal privileges, 
and guard all against adverse combinations. I 
can conceive of no more important subject for 
which a very large reward could be advanta- 
geously offered, than the best essay giving a clear 
exposition of this theme. 



246 



Sttjtttwattttral eotutptious 



CHAPTER XIV. 

OUR PRESENT STATUS 

In this dissertation we have described the source 
of man's belief in a Creator, and the cause of his 
speculations in the embodiment of a God. We 
have suggested his derivation of supernatural 
occurrences from misunderstood phenomena, and 
a prolific imagination that has created and woven 
into myths and legends very common events, as 
well as unusual experiences. In the earliest rec- 
ords there is a constant tendency to personify 
natural phenomena, and a poetical fancy to endow 
objects, animate and inanimate, with superhuman 
attributes. The earliest gods were derived almost 
entirely from that source. 

In later times mental endowments were recog- 
nized as elements of divinity, and systems more 
elaborate and transcendental were formulated, 
with concomitant gods whose lives and acts were 
emphasized and adorned with miracles, and other 
247 



WO* ©trifliti of 

supernatural attributes. In tracing these ab- 
normal characteristics, we note a repetition of 
the acts attributed to the earlier gods, ascribed to 
later divinities, in characteristics that leave but 
little doubt of plagiarism. 

An era of god-making culminated in deifying 
the Jewish Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth; who was 
executed, as related in the Bible narrative, for 
attempting to make himself " King of the Jews." 
Later tradition clothed him with many of the his- 
torical incidents related of Crishna's and Bud- 
dha's advents. A belief in his divinity has been 
retained in some of the most advanced nations, 
who claim for it all the brilliant acquirements in 
high-toned morals, justice, and equity attained 
by man's experience from earliest ages, and the 
scientific teaching and learning of modern times. 

Modern civilization is the fruit of modern cul- 
ture, derived from the free investigation of every 
question in the light of science, unhampered by 
any dictum from ancient law, but with a clear 
discernment of every truth in science and philos- 
ophy, having the crudities of theological super- 
stition eliminated. 

While the twentieth century begins with the 
human mind free to become emancipated from 
248 



Supernatural <&onttptiim$ 

the compulsory shackles of theologic rule, it is 
still clogged by the traditions of former tyranny, 
and the lingering dread of eternal punishment 
with which it has so long been held in abeyance. 

With such questions as the ultimate purposes 
of creation, or the modus operandi of a future state, 
science as yet has nothing to do; it simply leaves 
the speculative mind free to believe or repudiate 
any proposition relative to the unknowable it may 
choose to embrace. The only protest it would 
interpose is against the assumption that any dic- 
tum coming down from a more primitive age 
should be used as authority for belief, or a con- 
trol over the acts and thoughts of men; an as- 
sumption that has been the cause of much oppres- 
sion and bloodshed. It may be assumed, with- 
out fear of veracious contradiction, that no man 
ever lived who knew more of the future than we 
do; for there is no theology extant, whatever its 
pretensions to divine inspiration may be, that 
displays any knowledge of the true history of the 
world's advent; while on the contrary all, with- 
out exception, are based on what we know to be 
false conceptions of it. Is it within the scope of 
common sense or logical reason to claim for an 
ignorant age, or a legendary individual, greater 
249 



8M)e <&xiaiu of 

knowledge of mental phenomena, or the personal 
attributes of man and his destiny in the future 
order of events, than the most profound learning 
of the present day can compass? Is it within the 
legitimate range of human reason to assume that 
an omniscient incarnation of deity should not dis- 
play a knowledge of the true cosmology of the 
universe? Is it not true that if any teaching be 
found in the utterances of an assumed deity incon- 
sistent with the known facts of science, it is fatal 
to all claims of divine knowledge? All this the 
sayings of Christ show. To parry the plain com- 
mon sense of the text with metaphysical disqui- 
sitions or paraphrase may display great skill in 
mental legerdemain, but the necessity for its man- 
ifestation, to define God's direct communication 
with man, throws an infallible doubt upon the 
divinity of the assumed revelation. 

We need not stay to discuss the fabulous char- 
acter of the obsolete religions of the world; they 
serve only to emphasize the mental activity of 
human thought and the wonderful power of man 
to build up systems of theology from his fertile 
imagination. 

The religion that at the present time engrosses 
so much of the attention and energy of the most 
250 



Supernatural (frouttptiom 

advanced nations claims our attention at present. 
We believe that human benevolence, charity, love, 
equity, and justice would have a much more per- 
manent foundation based on man's inner con- 
sciousness of right, with the cultivation of a firm 
conviction that a strict integrity on his part would 
result in the greatest amount of happiness not 
only to the whole community, but consequently 
to himself individually; and that the incentive 
of his own native power and volition for right liv- 
ing would be a much greater inducement than 
any promise of post mortuary reward or punish- 
ment, or the placation of the ruler of the universe 
by prayer or conventional ceremonies. Seeking 
for exterior aid, instead of being self-reliant, is 
demoralizing. 

We have no Utopian aspirations regarding men's 
perfection, or their mental or physical equality; 
but we would indicate strict equity and justice to 
all. Much of the crime, and dereliction from law 
and order, arises from a prevalent feeling that 
the laws of society are inequitable; that the rich 
are reaping undue advantages of the needy, and 
that the laws are made for their greater protec- 
tion. The need for reform is really more impor- 
tant with the high and rich than with the lower 

25 1 



Eftt #trffliti of 

orders. Crime will be shorn of its greatest incen- 
tive when the most prosperous become the most 
equitable. But all reform must be attained by a 
consciousness of each one's power to do right; 
not because it will please or placate a superior 
being, but because it will better subserve the pur- 
poses of our creation and inure to each one's hap- 
piness in this world, which would be the greatest 
guarantee for it hereafter. 

The confusing and demoralizing doctrine that 
any form of theology is necessary to attain an en- 
joyment of a future state, of which man's imagi- 
nation alone gives him any idea, is found by thou- 
sands of years of experience to be of no avail in 
aid of criminal reformation. It will be found that 
where the most strict and tyrannical theological 
discipline prevails, the people are lowest and most 
depraved. 

If history teaches any one thing more promi- 
nently than another, it is that a knowledge of the 
world we live in, and a realization of the mental 
powers and functions of man in combating adverse 
natural phenomena, while availing himself of the 
advantages presented by a careful study of its ca- 
pabilities, will best subserve the purpose of his being, 
and elevate him to the highest moral and intel- 
252 



lectual standard, without reference to any other 
aiding than his own powers, which are all that 
have been or will ever be bestowed upon him. 

Man needs to waste no time in telling how de- 
voted he is to his Creator's service, who must know 
every purpose of his being, if he is omniscient; 
or to expend inordinate means and energies in 
building temples or churches to worship in. The 
best and only proper worship is, at all times to 
do right, and deal justly with our fellow men, — 
thus aid in making the world wiser and happier, — 
while consigning all mystic theologies to the ar- 
chives of a past age, as types of man's efforts for 
progress toward true knowledge, to be placed with 
the prehistoric remains of a primitive creation. 



253 



8TJ)t ©rfflin of 



CHAPTER XV. 

RECAPITULATION 

In elaborating from the Christian Bible a life 
of Christ and its uselessness in advancing civil- 
ization, we will here give our impression of the 
religion evolved therefrom; premising that we 
do not pretend to have any knowledge or proof 
that there is, or is not, to be a future life hereafter. 
Nor do we know or believe that any human being 
has, or ever had, any knowledge of the purpose 
of this creation, the history of its origin, or its final 
destiny. 

We have no knowledge or conception, as we 
have said, of the fundamental principle of mat- 
ter, or the beginning and end of space, time, or 
force; we have a conviction that amounts to a 
certainty with us that no human being does now, 
or ever did have any knowledge of them. We 
have endeavored to give a rational explanation of 
254 



the motive for the legends and supernatural ap- 
pearances with which the earliest histories are 
filled, together with the familiar intercourse be- 
tween gods and men; most frequent in the ear- 
liest records. 

At the present day we are surrounded by a na- 
tion that worships a godhead the principal entity 
of which is Jesus Christ, whose real life we have 
endeavored to elaborate from the meagre history 
and mythical biographical sketches found in the 
Gospels. 

We have learned from the several sectarian 
creeds of those who worship this God their belief 
that at the creation, or beginning of this world, 
a man and woman were created, from whom all 
the subsequent races of the earth sprang (which 
is in radical opposition to the facts of known sci- 
ence); that this man and woman were forbidden 
to eat of the fruit of a tree in the garden they were 
placed in, which would impart to them a knowl- 
edge of good and evil ; that, in their eagerness for 
information, they transgressed the command, and 
attained the knowledge God had forbidden, show- 
ing that God had not control over his own crea- 
tion; that this dereliction caused them to be ex- 
pelled from the Garden of Eden, and condemned 

255 



Stye ©tfflin of 

the man to work for his living, and the woman to 
suffer in childbirth; that this sentence was not 
only carried out in the case of the transgressors, 
but the curse descended to all their progeny. 

In due course of time mankind became so wicked 
that God swept the whole race from the face of 
the earth by a flood, and, for some unexplained 
reason, included " every living thing " except 
one man and his family, with a pair or more of 
" every living creature,'' which he caused to be 
preserved in an ark, floating upon the waters that 
covered the whole earth. Thus a new era began 
with a holy man selected by God to repeople the 
world. We find the descendants of this favorite 
of God, Noah, as corrupt apparently as the pre- 
ceding population; inheriting the corrupt nature 
and penalties inflicted on Adam and Eve, as they 
spread over the world, peopling it with all the 
races that exist at the present day. 1 

Among the several nations of men, many of 
whom arrived at a high degree of civilization, 
it is assumed that God selected a nomadic wan- 
derer, Abram, whom he promised to care for above 
all other men and nations, declaring that his seed 

1 This is a Babylonian legend, plagiarized by the Jews after 
their return from captivity, not a revelation to them. 
256 



Supernatural erouccpttous 

should become a great nation, dominating all 
others. God, the legend declares, also prom- 
ised Abram a country then inhabited by Ca- 
naanites in undisputed possession, but he did not 
gain possession of it. In time the migratory de- 
scendants of Abram found themselves in slavery 
to one of the most advanced and cultivated na- 
tions on earth. From their servitude they say God 
released them in a singularly miraculous way; 
and they wandered about forty years, apparently 
without purpose, — during which time many died, 
— until they finally came to Canaan, which their 
leaders told them God had given to their ances- 
tor. This country they found themselves strong 
enough to occupy, by driving out the owners, 
under the sanction of God. After various vicis- 
situdes, they flourished and became a nation, al- 
though never a dominant one. Subsequently they 
were conquered and led captive to Babylon, where 
they remained many years, enjoying much free- 
dom and a study of Babylonian culture. They 
were finally restored to Jerusalem by their cap- 
tors, and Ezra, their high priest, who was well 
versed in Babylonian lore, on coming to rule in 
Jerusalem, assumed to inaugurate the old Mo- 
saic laws, and compiled, or collected, the tradi- 
257 



tions that have come down to us in the Old Tes- 
tament. After many mutations, in none of which 
did the nation attain preponderance, they came 
under the Roman yoke as a Roman province. 

Recent discoveries have developed the fact that 
the legend of the creation in the book of Gen- 
esis, attributed to Moses, was derived from Baby- 
lonian writings by the Jews during their captivity, 
and was adapted by them to the God of Abraham, 
who was constituted the God of the Israelites. 
The monotheism of the Jews in imitation of ear- 
lier cults is simply an assumption that their God 
was superior to the gods of all other people; but 
they sometimes worshipped alien gods, contrary 
to the commands of their own deity. As a proof 
that they did not adhere to one God, their chief 
priest, Aaron, furnished them with a new one 
when he and they thought Moses had deserted 
them with his God. Their idea of a national God 
had often been announced by other nations be- 
fore the time of Moses, and was adopted by the 
multitude of the Jews; it found expression in 
Babylonian lore, as well as in that of other na- 
tions. Whether the God of Abraham and Moses 
was the only true God or not, they often wor- 
shipped those of other people. His covenant to 
258 



Sujwtttatttral Conceptions 

aid and protect the Israelites, regardless of all 
others, history shows has proved as bootless as 
the rest of the legend. 

The Jews always had numerous prophets, as 
their literature abundantly shows, and among 
their prophecies a Messiah was promised, who 
would raise them up to be a great and independ- 
ent nation, ruling them with just laws for all 
time. This was the universal belief of the Jews, 
although they were then reduced to a subserviency 
to Rome. 

At this time there was born in Judea a child 
of Jewish parentage, who eventually claimed to 
be the promised Messiah. The accounts of him 
state that he was miraculously conceived by a vir- 
gin, to which her betrothed husband assented; 
although in no instance thereafter is it recorded 
they ever proclaimed his miraculous conception, 
or countenanced his teaching as Messiah. We have 
his own declaration that he was not honored as 
supernatural in his own house or among his own 
people; and he repulsed his mother and breth- 
ren when they went to meet him, while he was 
surrounded in the height of his popularity by a 
host of followers (showing they were not in ac- 
cord), and he then disowned them. This man 

2 59 



art)* <&viQin of 

Jesus had a peculiar career that we have attempted 
to deduce from the Gospels, which finally ended 
in his execution by the Roman governor Pilate, 
who published the cause of his execution on the 
cross in three languages, that all might under- 
stand it. 

After his death, his followers and their converts 
formed themselves into small congregations, gov- 
erned by the twelve disciples at Jerusalem, subse- 
quently declaring him to be the son of God, and 
claiming they had seen him alive after his execu- 
tion, which no one else did. We do not propose 
to follow the contrariety of ideas about his rela- 
tion to " God the Father " that now exist and 
have antagonized the Christian sects from the 
beginning. It is sufficient to note that Christians 
believe in original sin inherited from Adam, and 
that man is prone to be wicked; which dogma 
we have no doubt is a potent cause of much of 
the evil in Christendom. The creed being es- 
tablished that man is wicked naturally, the Chris- 
tian declares that after thousands of years of this 
continuous sinning, during which time legions of 
human beings had been born and died, built tem- 
ples and worshipped, taught morals and justice, 
forbearance and self-sacrifice, to the best of their 
260 



Supernatural Qonttptiom 

knowledge, up to that time God had permitted 
all the world to live on in ignorance of his will until 
some nineteen hundred years ago, at which time 
an incomprehensible son was incarnated through 
a Jewish mother, in the Roman province of Judea, 
by whom and her spouse Joseph he was reared 
in the Jewish faith. 

Christ, after his birth, spent the first thirty years 
of his life, as the story goes, in maturing, without 
any recorded attempt at teaching. About that 
time " John the Baptist," his cousin, began an- 
nouncing him as the Messiah the prophecies had 
promised the Jews. John became popular and 
had numerous followers. He gathered hosts of 
proselytes, at which time Christ was baptized by 
him. 

Jesus declared his mission to be, as we have 
seen, to the Jews exclusively; and after some two 
years of action in gathering a host of followers, 
and taking possession of the Temple, in which he 
was announced " King of the Jews," he was ap- 
prehended, tried by the Roman governor Pilate, 
found guilty, and executed. Thus, out of more 
than thirty years in life, he spent two or three at 
most in a mission that brought him to an igno- 
minious death under Roman law. 
261 



©D* ©trtgin of 

Christ's disciples, after choosing a substitute 
for Judas, consorted in Jerusalem, and super- 
vised the work of their coadjutors, the believing 
Jews. Subsequently Paul, antagonizing Peter, 
extended the benefits promised the Jews to Gen- 
tiles, other than the circumcised Jewish nation, 
on which alone it had before been conferred by 
Christ. The Saviour, or Redeemer, was assumed 
by Paul to be sent from God, or to have come of 
his own volition, to redeem mankind from their 
sins, and to effect a reconciliation between man 
and God. For this purpose, it is claimed, it be- 
came necessary that he should die, that his blood 
should be shed for the remission of man's sins, 
and the curse inherited from Adam. This wholly 
unintelligible problem is still adhered to by Chris- 
tians. 

It is inconceivable, on any logical theory, that 
the death of a supernatural teacher could advance 
the cause it is claimed he came to expound. It 
is certain that not all who heard him believed in 
his divine mission, which, if true, could have been 
best exemplified by his continuous personal teach- 
ing and example. His death has caused a great 
diversity of opinion among his followers to this day. 

The Christian doctrine is that the first require- 
262 



ment in order to attain the benefit of this great 
sacrifice is, first, to believe in Christ as the Sa- 
viour through whom alone man can be saved from 
eternal punishment. Secondly, that he should 
lead an exemplary life void of sin. With many 
Christian sects the latter requisite is useless and 
unavailing without the first, and all the virtue 
and goodness of unbelievers is futile; while dere- 
liction of the most flagrant character will be for- 
given by repentance, coupled with a firm belief in 
salvation through Christ. 

The dogma of this incarnate God, or Saviour, 
slowly spread, through the fanatical exertions of 
the disciples who still believed in him; in which 
belief they were confirmed by reported visions and 
supernatural occurrences such as often appear 
to ardent followers of assumed divinities. The 
original disciples, following Christ, supposed his 
mission was to the Jews; but Paul, although he 
believed in the superiority of the Jews, saw the im- 
portance of spreading the doctrine among the 
Gentiles, which has done more to popularize him 
than his clear-headed lawyer-like tact in defence. 

After a precarious and struggling existence, 
through the opposition and indifference of the 
Jewish and Roman powers, the sect increased 
263 



2TJ)* ©tfflin of 

under the mild rule of Hadrian; and when Con- 
stantine was strengthening himself against his 
opponents he saw the importance of securing 
this potent ally that would be bound to his cause 
for mutual support. Thus commenced the es- 
tablishment of the new religion as a dominant 
power, that was afterward to become the ruler 
of Rome and the rest of the Western world, bind- 
ing men's consciences in iron grip under penalty 
of torture and death. Such was the birth and 
growth of this religion, founded on the tradition 
of an aspirant for the Jewish Messiahship and rule 
of the Jewish people as their king, in which he 
failed, and was executed for the attempt. 

While this religion has not yet attained the age 
of the older ones that have spread over many na- 
tions and a larger number of people, it chanced 
to be propagated in the rapidly advancing West- 
ern communities, mentally and physically active. 
These have, in defiance of its stultifying influence, 
burst the bonds of its enthralment, and declared 
the truths of nature in spite of its antagonism. 
And now, attaining through the power of modern 
science a higher standard unaided by religion, it 
strives to avail itself of the results it has so strenu- 
ously opposed, to dominate and proselyte those 
264 



nations where modern science is still in its in- 
fancy, availing itself of the power attained by it 
to obtain control over nations less enlightened 
by science which it opposed. 

At the present day we are met with a formida- 
ble array of popular beliefs and the long- endur- 
ing assent of intellectual thinkers to the truth of 
the Christian religion; and we are asked if we 
presume to oppose our views to the great world 
of religious belief by which we are surrounded. 
The answer to this is very simple, without arro- 
gating to ourselves any superior knowledge or 
acumen. The majority of the human race do not 
now believe the Christian dogma, and the fact is 
patent to every reader of the history of the Chris- 
tian world that nearly, if not quite up to our own 
times, investigation has been suppressed by penal 
laws, ostracism, and contumely, against any one 
who dared to offer a doubt, even, of the divinity 
of Christ and his assumed mission; while chil- 
dren have been taught from earliest infancy that it 
was criminally wicked to doubt the theological 
dogmas instilled into their minds by those to whom 
they looked for guidance. Thus a foregone con- 
clusion has been interposed as a barrier to free 
investigation, not only by dogmatic suasion, but 
265 



Stye <&r(0iti of 

by statute law, against all liberty of thought and 
inquiry into the authority and truth of a religion 
assumed to be divinely revealed by God as estab- 
lished in Christian lands. 

With such a fearful enthralment, coupled with pen- 
alties, those who doubted were silenced, and forced 
to outwardly submit, while the shackles were riv- 
eted tighter by the pretence that all goodness was 
indissolubly coupled with Christian doctrine, which, 
although being thus enforced upon the human 
mind from childhood, can have but little weight 
in the search for truth. 



266 



Supernatural <&outt»tiom 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE GENESIS OF CHRISTIANITY 

The story of the genesis of Christianity, on 
which the illogical dogma is founded, describes its 
originator to have been born after the ordinary 
course of gestation, in a Jewish family, but that he 
was miraculously conceived while his mother was 
a virgin. In contravention of this he is declared to 
be a descendant of David, which could not be true 
if his mother's husband was not his father, as he in- 
herited his descent from David through him. His 
mother always called Joseph, her husband, his 
father, as we have seen, and he declared himself to 
be "the Son of Man." No important incident is 
related of him after his infancy, up to his thirtieth 
year, except his inconsequent meeting with the doc- 
tors in the Temple at Jerusalem. We have no ac- 
count of what was said on that occasion, but it was 
evidently not a declaration of his Messianic mis- 
267 



artie ©rfflin of 

sion, and his father and mother disapproved his 
action at that time, and took him home with them, 
without signifying a belief in any abnormal power 
vested in him; " and he was subject unto them," 
which implies that he was punished for his derelic- 
tion, that was never afterward repeated. It is a 
significant fact that a similar story was related of the 
birth of Buddha, hundreds of years before Christ's 
birth, and well known all over the Eastern world 
when the Gospels were written. 

We find that, about thirty years after the birth of 
Christ, and his relative, John the Baptist, John ap- 
peared uniquely clothed in camel's hair, with a 
leather girdle about his loins, and, to make his ad- 
vent more striking, he fed on locusts and wild honey, 
evidently to attract notoriety and make a sensation. 
He taught in the wilderness of Judea, and gathered 
multitudes about him from all the region round 
him. His cry was, " Repent ye: for the kingdom of 
heaven is at hand ! " saying of himself, " This is he 
that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, 
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare 
ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight," thus 
enacting a preconcerted part. 

John anathematized the Pharisees and Saddu- 
cees who came to hear him, well knowing they 
268 



Sttjperttatttral Conceptions 

would not join in the crusade he was inaugurating; 
a curse afterward emphasized by Christ. 

Christ was baptized by John, to confirm his mis- 
sion, and connect him with the movement. He then 
retreated to await John's development of the dem- 
onstration, during which time it is related the epi- 
sode of the temptation occurred, in which Christ 
circumvented the devil. 

It is evident that John's bold crusade was at last 
noticed by the authorities, and he was imprisoned, 
at which Christ, becoming alarmed, fled into Gali- 
lee, and avoided his home, Nazareth, where he 
might have been traced. He went to Capernaum 
by the sea, where escape was easy, and by it he also 
connected himself with a prophecy wherein those 
places were named, without the remotest reference, 
however, to him. 

John having been imprisoned, and afterward be- 
headed, the whole business of collecting an array 
of followers, and organizing the force that was to 
make him " King of the Jews," fell upon Jesus, 
who evidently had but little military knowledge. 
He began by choosing twelve coadjutants, mostly 
among the fishermen of Galilee, a hardy race, en- 
thusiastic and credulous. In this choice he made 
one mistake, that afterward proved disastrous. At 
269 



©!)* (©ttflfn of 

that time he was active in getting his forces organ- 
ized, and the occasion was so strenuous that he ap- 
peared almost brutal in refusing to let one of his fol- 
lowers go to bury his father, saying, " Let the dead 
bury their dead," a random utterance, without 
meaning. In these active times he repudiated his 
mother and brothers, as he commanded his followers 
to do in this perilous time of action. He exhorted 
his coadjutors to leave every tie to follow his cause, 
and to practise every conceivable act of abnegation 
to serve him, promising them ample reward for 
faithful service, which he frankly told them would 
be dangerous; while he threatened them with hell- 
fire if they were derelict, telling them to fear not 
those that can kill the body, but rather fear him 
who could destroy body and soul in hell-fire. He 
charged them to take no thought for their life ; and 
if they had not a sword, to sell their garment to buy 
one. 

The Sermon on the Mount was addressed to 
thousands of his ignorant followers gathered to do 
his bidding. It was evidently delivered to incite 
them to serve him with self-abnegation obediently 
and with reckless bravery in action. It is Jewish in 
character and sentiment, and addressed exclusively 
to Jews who were about to attempt to make him 
270 



their king, and establish " a kingdom of heaven " 
in Jerusalem; for which purpose they marched up 
to that city, a formidable host, and took possession 
of the Temple under his command (as we have seen), 
and drove out the occupants, shouting hosannas, 
and proclaiming him " Son of David," and " King 
of the Jews." This belligerent act was objected to 
by the priests, the rulers of the Temple, to whom he 
refused to give any account for his acts. He left 
Jerusalem that night and retreated to safer quarters 
at Bethany. He returned in the morning, and on 
his way back exhibited his miraculous powers to his 
followers by killing a fig-tree, a feat, however ef- 
fected, well calculated to give his followers admoni- 
tion in the coming contest; with the assurance that 
they could do the like and remove mountains if they 
had sufficient faith. 

After his entering Jerusalem, he dictated in the 
Temple until he was expelled, after refusing to tell 
its guardians by what authority he acted. The ac- 
count of his expulsion is wholly omitted, as it was 
evidently a defeat ; but that he was expelled is cer- 
tain, as we read that he roundly cursed his oppo- 
nents, lamenting that Jerusalem would not come 
under his rule, and prophesying its destruction, 
which clearly shows the depth of his disappoint- 
271 



2TJ|t ©trifltn of 

ment, and the vengeful nature of his character. 
From that time he clearly saw that his cause as 
" King of the Jews "was ended, and he retired to 
the Mount of Olives. At this period of his disaster 
his disciples went to him privately to learn in what 
way he proposed to establish the kingdom he had 
promised them. His answer is characteristic of his 
assumption of divinity by an equivocal evasion: he 
had evidently not then given up the fight. After 
describing the tribulations and horrors they were 
to witness, and the miraculous escapes they were to 
undergo, they would see him coming in the clouds 
with great power and glory, with angels, and a 
great sound of trumpets, to call the elect together 
from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the 
other. Could there be conceived a more thor- 
oughly mundane picture of ideal angels, and other 
properties of a theatrical phantasmagoria, to be- 
wilder the brains of his credulous acolytes ? But he 
knew the extent of their infatuation, and availed 
himself of it to extricate himself from the conse- 
quences of his failure to become king at that time. 

After he was driven from the Temple his army of 

followers seem to have deserted him, probably after 

a bloody fight, if his lamentations about the blood 

of the righteous is an indication. This was evi- 

272 



Supernatural Qouttptiom 

dently the termination of his active career on earth. 
He was soon after taken, through the treachery of 
one of his disciples who knew his retreat, and 
judged from the bellicose character of his followers 
that resistance was to be expected. Judas went 
with a strongly armed force to overcome resistance 
and arrested him. He was first taken before the 
Jewish high priest, who could only try him for dese- 
cration of the Temple, not a capital offence under 
Roman law. So he was transferred to the Roman 
governor Pilate, under the graver charge of attempt- 
ing to make himself " King of the Jews/' of which 
there was ample proof, and Christ seems to have 
acknowledged it. For that offence he was executed, 
having the indictment blazoned upon his cross in 
three languages. This shows that he did not suf- 
fer death for any sacrificial or sectarian purpose, or 
any act against Jewish law; but for attempting to 
rebel against Roman law, by essaying to establish 
a kingdom in dereliction of Roman sovereignty, — 
a capital offence that Pilate took especial care to 
announce at his execution. 

On the delusive basis founded on this episode, 
there has grown up a religion dominating the West- 
ern world. After three hundred years of precari- 
ous existence, founded on legends singularly inter- 
2 73 



woven with earlier traditions of more ancient people 
of an incarnate God and Saviour, this religious 
sect, which in time had gained strength in num- 
bers, imbued with fanaticism, and persistent through 
antagonism and persecution, came to the notice of 
the Roman emperor Constantine, who was seeking 
support from any quarter; and he, perceiving the 
strength he could secure from such an ally, took 
them under his patronage and protection, modify- 
ing, governing, and controlling them to suit his 
purposes, notably, in the change of their holy day 
from the Jewish Sabbath (always before kept by 
them under the belief that it was the command of 
God) to Sunday, the holy day of the sun- worship- 
pers, who were also favored and patronized by the 
emperor. The Gentile Christians more readily as- 
sented to this change on account of their enmity to 
the Jews, with whom their religion originated, 
wholly disregarding the declaration of Christ that 
the law should not be changed " one jot or tittle." 
Such was the elasticity of the Christian religion 
that the emperor's reverence for another faith over- 
rode the command of the Christians' God. 

From the time of Constantine, about A. d. 300, 
Christianity has dominated the Roman world, ow- 
ing to his patronage of the Roman bishop, and it 
274 



has pervaded all Europe and America. Under 
Christian rule were the feuds of the early churches 
enacted, with their dissensions and acrimony; then 
the dominance and intolerance of the Roman hier- 
archy prevailed, with its fearful atrocities and bar- 
barous suppression of free thought, with death 
penalties for declaring an enlightening truth. This 
intolerance was kept up by the bigoted Protestant 
sects, until science gradually enforced its right to 
investigate nature and utter the truth about it, 
which antagonized the false traditions of their 
theology. 

The present age still retains the lingering rem- 
nant of a theological control in legislation, although 
forbidden in the American Constitution, which 
appears in Sabbatarian laws, and an inequitable 
interference with personal rights and liberty of 
action. All this has been, and is now done, under 
the guise of Christian belief; teaching an abnor- 
mal supernatural and exclusive dogma, favoring 
none of the human race but the believers in its 
mythical legends. We find it now making strenu- 
ous efforts to force the world to adopt the many- 
sided enigmas and contradictions, that are as il- 
logical and unphilosophical as can be conceived, 
with all its stultifying of common sense and reason. 

275 



The Christian dogma is the result of a belief 
that a person executed over nineteen hundred 
years ago, for trying to become " King of the Jews," 
knew more about a future life than we do; al- 
though it is evident that he knew nothing about 
the structure and cosmology of the universe, and 
the world he lived in. 

A teaching in early youth of the grossest falla- 
cies is a fearful impediment to the mental free- 
dom of most minds; even with the strongest in- 
tellectually, it is a problem if the poison can be 
eradicated. It is much harder to unlearn than to 
learn; it is much harder to analyze a belief than 
to believe. 

The title of Christian Nation is false as applied 
to the United States; it is in contravention of the 
Constitution, and rests only on the assumption that 
a majority of its inhabitants are Christians. The 
founders of this republic were wise enough to see 
the danger to freedom in the dogmatic rule of any 
religion, and so framed their Constitution under 
the Declaration of Independence as to admit, 
with equal rights, all religions, of whatever name 
or nature, that did not interfere with the equal 
rights of other religions. 

The Constitution declares that all have an equal 
276 



right to enjoy full liberty of conscience in act and 
deed, without molestation or interference. This 
was the first dawn of real liberty, which the Chris- 
tian sects are now striving to smother. First force 
the nation to declare itself Christian, and then the 
strongest sect will rule. 



277 



&J)* <&xiQin of 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE STATUS OF HUMAN ATTAINMENT 

If in the preceding chapters we have shown 
that there is no foundation but the traditional 
legends of unknown authors, based on the crea- 
tive intellect of primitive people, for the super- 
natural religions of the world, and that the stories 
of spiritual acts, miracles, and especially the di- 
rect personal communication between men and 
a god or gods, angels, spirits, afrites, or devils, are 
simply the work of the human imagination, we 
are compelled to turn to their mental powers for the 
legitimate source of human knowledge and the 
fountain of truth by man attainable. 

In the evolution of human intelligence and 
thought, the active mind of man has shown an 
erratic series of random lines, in striving to as- 
certain the true course of legitimate knowledge. 
The free flight of the imagination into regions 
unknown naturally followed the course of least 
278 



resistance, and expanded into innumerable pic- 
tures of the supernatural, that consolidated into 
a multiplicity of religions, with which the world's 
literature is rilled. It is evident from the result 
that so far these wanderings have only tended 
by their dogmas to produce aberrance from the 
true purpose of man's being. The only legitimate 
knowledge obtainable by man must be derived 
from facts, and not from the emotions, which tend 
to good or evil as they are directed by human 
impulse. Man is constituted to discern good 
from evil, right from wrong, and the attainment 
of them so far as his knowledge extends. His er- 
rors invariably arise from misapprehension of the 
laws governing the universe, a correct knowledge 
of which is not yet fully attained by investiga- 
tion untrammelled by preconceived ideas. 

From the advent of the earliest religions to the 
present time righteousness and sin have been form- 
ulated, with multitudinous interpretations of what 
constituted right and wrong. In the majority of 
cases the rules that determined these questions were 
entirely artificial, and often led to acts wantonly 
barbarous, arbitrarily governing and directing men, 
contrary to their convictions, a result which has 
ever accompanied formulated religions, while their 
279 



©f)t ©rifliti of 

teachings have sometimes led to self-sacrifice and 
torture. Most of the religious teachings of the 
world picture the supreme controller of creation 
as having placed imperfect erring beings on this 
earth, as it would seem for the purpose of venge- 
fully punishing all who did not live up to the ar- 
tificial rules established by authority. The horrid 
and fiendish idea of eternal punishment for past 
sins, which has nothing to do with reformation, 
is a cardinal Christian dogma, and is the active 
agent in terrorizing, and rendering the lives of 
thousands unhappy, while it is a source of large 
profit to priests, bishops, and other organized 
teachers, who claim to have authority not vouch- 
safed to ordinary men. Such a dogma, if true, 
would show the purpose of the originator of man's 
being to be more malicious and vengeful than the 
human fiends who concocted the malevolent in- 
terpretation of the phenomena of which they were 
entirely ignorant. 

So far as the Christian dogma of vengeful pun- 
ishment is concerned, it is confirmed by Christ 
himself, who displayed a most virulent attitude 
toward all who opposed his establishing a "king- 
dom of heaven " in Jerusalem with himself as 
" King of the Jews." As the scribes and Phari- 
280 



Supernatural (Touccpttong 

sees, together with all the educated Jews, opposed 
him, he hurled curses and anathemas at them, 
together with hell-fire, — a very potent threat to 
awe his followers, but which proved quite harm- 
less to those against whom it was directed, who 
were potential authorities, respected by the na- 
tion. This element of exterminating vengeance 
often appears in Christ's accredited sayings. 

When men appreciate generally " the golden 
rule," taught as early as Confucius, unaccompa- 
nied by dogmatic and arbitrary theology, they will 
make more rapid progress in equitable laws and 
customs toward the higher civilization. 

From a series of ages beyond historic date na- 
tions have existed; civilization and refinement 
have advanced, and profound thought has been 
displayed; men have labored to eliminate truth, 
justice, and right from error and wrong in their 
natures. From age to age profound thinkers have 
uttered grand and axiomatic truths that all man- 
kind could understand and appreciate. Many 
of these axioms have been incorporated into all relig- 
ions, and form a part of their teachings down to 
the present day. Some of these profound thoughts 
have been attributed to divine revelation; others 
to inspired prophets, saints, and sages. Often 
281 



STJje ©rtflin of 

later maxims have been attributed to philoso- 
phers of earlier times, to enhance their authority. 
It is notably the case that such utterances have 
been ascribed to revelation in religious dogmas, 
that have come into existence since the historic 
period, in which the earlier episodes and apothegms 
are introduced and attributed to more modern 
religions, in which they are ascribed to their dei- 
ties as original revelations. 

The assumption that the originator of this uni- 
verse would permit mankind to wander on in er- 
rors fatal to their good through century after cen- 
tury, during which legions of human beings lived 
and died, possessing all the natural attributes of 
modern humanity, and at the end of that time 
he would awaken to the necessity of enlighten- 
ing and redeeming them from eternal misery by 
a new plenary revelation, is too unqualifiedly ir- 
rational to be accepted by any man who has an 
intelligent conception of a just and equitable Cre- 
ator. 

We have seen from the nebulous histories of 
prejudiced narrators the course of religious be- 
liefs from prehistoric times. It is desirable that, 
out of the chaos of fabled legends and imaginings 
of man untutored in science, there should be evolved 
282 



SttjHrvnatttral <&Qnttption& 

a fixed criterion of truth as a guide to future in- 
vestigations, irrespective of prior opinions. 

We have endeavored to show that man in his 
uncultivated state, after the powers of ratiocina- 
tion and observation, of cause and effect had been 
developed, believed that a being or beings existed 
capable of producing the creation he was surrounded 
by, and believing the earth to be an immovable, 
stable body, he pictured the " firmament " above 
him as the dwelling-place of this invisible being, 
or host, from which it all originated. This is dis- 
pelled by a correct knowledge of the universe. 

The organization of gregarious animals into 
communities results generally in certain restrictions 
of individual action necessary to their association; 
this appears in the most pronounced forms in the 
genus homo. The rudest barbarian tribes have 
their chiefs and rulers. As they grow more refined 
laws and regulations are adopted that serve to give 
the rulers a defined and established power, more and 
more circumscribed as man advances in modern 
acquirement. 

With the known attributes of earliest association, 

and the usages of earthly rulers, chiefs who could be 

influenced and placated by presents and adulations, 

men approached the invisible power that tran- 

283 



8TJ)e ©tifltn of 

scended all earthly authority by the same methods. 
These powers they felt assured existed from the 
thunderings and lightnings that often proved dis- 
astrous, sometimes striking them dead, against 
which they could offer no resistance, while the co- 
pious showers fjom the reservoirs above the firma- 
ment, filled with water, must be actuated by some 
being invisible to them, and they prayed to be sup- 
plied by the conservators from that vast storage in 
time of need. 

Men believed from the assurance of their senses 
that the earth they lived on was firm and immov- 
able, with a dome over it visible to the eyes, spa- 
cious enough to contain a host of gods, demigods, 
and angels, or other spirits with which their imag- 
inations peopled them sufficient to execute the com- 
mands of their superiors. 

It was then inconceivable that the multitudinous 
phenomena observed could be produced otherwise 
than by innumerable hands. As these observations 
matured, aided by dreams and unaccountable phe- 
nomena, the fertile imagination of men gradually 
formulated mythical communities of deities and 
supernatural events, generally picturesque and often 
sublime, with exaggerations of virtues, sufferings, 
dangers, and escapes, commensurate with the au- 
284 



<Stt#miatttral <&onttptiom 

thor's conception of deity. On investigation it 
will be perceived that all these mythic religions 
are but the fictions of man's errant thought, 
sometimes based upon or attributed to a wise 
teacher or suffering martyr ; enveloped in miracles, 
revelations, supernatural birth, and the like; in 
later times these occult phenomena were borrowed 
from earlier legends. 

Moral aphorisms, maxims, proverbs, axioms, and 
truisms pervade all the religious teachings, from 
earliest records, often subtile and profound, some- 
times attaining the highest ethical standard. The 
symbolical representations of the gods and their 
attributes have often been mistaken for idols by 
ignorant and dogmatical observers, as have the 
sacred animals, that have been construed to mean 
the deity they symbolized, a purport never dreamed 
of by their originators. 

The varied constructions put upon the ancient 
religions are only equalled by the multiplicity and 
contrariety of definitions of modern religions. The 
endless literature of the Hindus, the Brahmanical 
expositions of the Vedas with subtile interpretations 
of the sublimated text, quite equal the modern 
body of doctrines promulgated by Christian au- 
thors. The Christian and Mohammedan sects have 
285 



®i)t ©trfflfn of 

written libraries of works defending their varying 
and antagonistic creeds, with no warrant for the 
truth of any of their authors' teachings. 

If in the preceding pages we have been able to 
call attention to the persistent aberration of the 
human mind, in following the chimeras evolved by 
primitive people in attempting to solve the purpose 
of creation, in which every pretender to super- 
human attainments is eagerly believed to possess 
knowledge as an expounder of a future existence, 
about which man in his present state knows noth- 
ing, it may be that we shall have given some small aid 
in directing human thought into a legitimate course 
of discovery to attain a more perfect knowledge of 
the highest physical, moral, and intellectual capa- 
bilities of the human race, that no dogma about a 
hereafter will ever accomplish; if so, we shall have 
succeeded in our purpose, and shall submit with 
equanimity to all the adverse criticism with which 
we may be favored. 



286 



Sttjieruatmral ©oucqmons 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



Among the most prominent questions that have 
engaged the philosophers of the ancient world and 
the scientists of modern times is the anthropo- 
genic creation, man. Speculations innumerable and 
endless theories have been formulated, evolving 
religions more or less ideal, with claims of revealed 
truths that modern culture shows to be wholly fic- 
titious, but always with the fundamental theory 
that this universe was created for the single pur- 
pose of elaborating the human race, and develop- 
ing its status in a future existence for which this 
life is a temporary preparation. Such ideas were 
very natural when it was assumed that this world 
was a stationary central body, a terra firma around 
which the heavenly bodies revolved, and over 
which a firmament, a solid dome, was superposed, 
from which was poured out water to irrigate the 
dry land, and from which came the voices of the 

287 



&%t ©triflfn of 

spirit-world in thunders and evidences of wrath in 
winds and lightnings, tempests and droughts, in- 
conceivable unless the heavens above were peopled 
by invisible beings who produced those tangible 
results, apparently for the sole benefit of man. 

But modern research has obliterated these fic- 
tions, and shown mankind the true place occupied 
by this planet in the universe, and that man is a 
minute creation in the immensity, inconceivably 
engrossing the principal care and attention of the 
originator, as his egotism has caused him to believe. 

The realization of the fact that man in common 
with all living things was predestined to die, caused 
him to originate an exception for himself in a sub- 
sequent existence, that infinite theories have for- 
mulated into innumerable religions, which have 
been believed in from the beginning of recorded 
society. The modern scientist holds all these im- 
aginary attempts at their true value, as the mere 
fabrications of idealism, while he is met with the 
profound but unanswerable question, — What is 
the purpose of this immeasurably wonderful crea- 
tion ? For what is it destined ? 

No fact can be more certain than that all the 
attempts at a solution of these questions hereto- 
fore essayed have been inadequate and speculative. 
288 



Sttptwartttral <&onttption& 

The enigma is as profound now as it ever was, and 
all the religious dogmas that have ever been elab- 
orated have not only thrown no light upon the 
question, but have served to distract men's attention 
from the pursuit of real knowledge. 

We have attained a knowledge of the fact that 
there are on earth existences in various stages of 
mental capacity, from a very low appreciation of 
being, only sufficient to continue their existence, 
up to a capacity for warring, strategy, and defence, 
in contact with other activities; and we note that 
while man displays a more perfect knowledge than 
any of the other entities by which he is surrounded, 
he is in some particulars physically, if not men- 
tally, inferior to other animated beings. In search- 
ing for the cause of these phenomena we perceive 
that the actuating source of all thought and action 
is the centre of the nervous system, the brain, which 
anatomically widely differs in the different species 
of the animal creation, increasing in complexity as 
a more perfect intelligence is developed. This 
points to a conclusion that the more elaborate that 
organ is, the more perfect will be the intellect. But 
further, the powers of the brain are multiplex, and 
while the human brain is vastly superior to any 
other, in some functions the inferior brains of other 
289 



©He ©riflfti of 

animals exceed ours. We have a further confirma- 
tion of the connection of the brain with the power 
of thought in human beings where the brain is atro- 
phied, undeveloped, or otherwise diseased, show- 
ing a defective intellect. From this we deduce the 
fact that the amount of intellect is in exact accord- 
ance with the perfection of the brain construc- 
tion, as a musical instrument responds to an im- 
pulse given it in exact accordance with its forma- 
tion. We thus have a resultant from a physical 
entity that is intelligible to our powers of reasoning, 
and we know that this entity has a limited power 
and existence, is born, performs the offices that its 
structure indicates, and dies; the elements com- 
posing it assuming other forms in endless succes- 
sion. 

But there is another element in this wonderful 
problem, the vivifying force that can only actu- 
ate this entity in exact accordance with its struc- 
ture, to which its powers are limited, and which 
it can in no wise exceed. Just here the tangible 
facts become speculative, and the ratiocination, 
imagination, and observation of man are brought 
into play to eliminate the impelling cause that 
actuates and controls the ego, which cannot ex- 
ceed the limits of its organization. Finding him- 
290 



self thus limited, resort is had to imaginings of 
artificial creation, expanding out into dreams, and 
assumption of revelation, which has culminated 
in traditions, of marvels that have taken the place 
of historic facts, which have been augmented by 
impostors who have availed themselves of the cre- 
dulity of men in their desire to probe the unknown, 
by a pretence of knowledge beyond its limits, that 
deceived the wisest in times past. 

All the religions that have ever existed in the 
world, as we have said, are based on the suppo- 
sition that this earth was stationary and central, 
around which the sun, moon, and stars revolved, 
and that there was a spirit land in the firmament 
inhabited by spirits, or supernatural beings. We 
now know that the theory of a stationary world 
is false, and that no religion based upon it can be 
a revelation from a superior intelligence. 

We also know that the laws governing this cre- 
ation, so far as they have been discovered, are im- 
mutable, and that any pretence to the contrary is 
fabulous. There is a generally accepted axiom 
that every effect has a cause; if this be true there 
must have been some force, power, will, or intel- 
ligence, by whatever name called, that originated 
this universe, if it ever had an origin, transcendently 
291 



W§t ©tiflfn of 

wise and powerful. Of its origin we can have no 
conception, nor of its termination. It is incon- 
ceivable that this immensity of creation should 
have been made for no purpose; and it is equally 
inconceivable that it has culminated in man, an 
infinitesimal part of creation. It seems impossi- 
ble to doubt that there is a final or a constantly 
advancing purpose in this ever moving universe, 
but to attempt to solve it, with our present knowl- 
edge, or to claim that it has been revealed to any 
one, is idle. 

We have no just conception of the author of this 
existence; we but just begin to correctly under- 
stand the phenomena by which we are surrounded, 
and that only imperfectly. We are but now be- 
ginning to learn the uses of the goods we are so 
lavishly surrounded by, and the ameliorations we 
are capable of for the benefit of mankind. We 
have been so busy with the unseen, and profit- 
less search for the unknowable, which we are not 
to attain in our present state, that we have neg- 
lected the attainable. The wise will only seek the 
knowledge they can compass. 

Many religionists seem unconscious of the gross 
traducement they perpetrate in declaring this to be 
" a world of sin and misery,' ' " a vale of tears," 
292 



Supernatural ®mmptimw 

a preparatory school for a future better world of 
bliss, in which, if they do not follow the prescribed 
rules of their peculiar theological creed, they will 
not be allowed to participate. This world is a 
home, made with inconceivable perfection, in which 
we are placed with mental and physical powers, 
to acquire a knowledge of it. 

Nothing extraneous to this ever was, or ever 
will be, given to us by gods, angels, or demons. 
We are here to perfect our relations with this 
home, that is our present habitat; we have not 
yet achieved a knowledge of " the goods the gods 
have given us," while idling our time away upon 
speculations about a future life in another sphere, 
where we shall not have to earn our own living. 
Nothing can be clearer than the fact that the book 
of nature is here before us, in which we may study 
and achieve our greatest temporal good; and the 
higher we rise in the scale of worldly perfection, 
the more clearly shall we see that the advancement 
of our fellow men in knowledge, bodily comfort, 
and equitable rights in the goods we have attained 
to, the happier we shall be individually. 

Of what value would be billions of coin to the 
refined gentleman, scholar, or scientist, in the 
raidst of an unappreciative, ignorant, and uncul- 
293 



Supernatural Conceptions 

tivated people? Religionists per se are so intent 
on propagating their faith, that social science is 
lost sight of, and but for the intervention of mod- 
ern science, which, happily, in recent times has 
curtailed theological dictums within a more rea- 
sonable sphere, we should be still fluttering our 
unfledged wings in aspiring to fly into spiritual 
worlds unknown. 



294 



®pptnXiiV 



Appendix 



Like Confucius, we may say, if right principles 
ruled, there would be no necessity for us to try 
to change the status. Confucius did not profess 
to be an originator, but a conservator of truth and 
morals previously taught, showing at that early 
period that high virtue and morality were attrib- 
uted to a still earlier time, and had been conceived 
and taught ages before. The constitution and 
nature of man show the foundation of all subse- 
quent reasoning in the slow discovery of truth, that 
is still but partly and fragmentarily understood. 
Confucius taught, by the force of example, that 
it needed virtue in the higher positions of life to 
secure it in the lower. 

A belief in a future life existed before Confu- 
cius, but he made no pretence to any knowledge 
of it, saying, " While you do not know life, what 
can you know about death?" The speculations 
of modern investigators into the unknown have 
been varied and contradictory; based as they are 

295 



upon the unknowable, they are simple types of 
imaginative intellect, and are of no real scientific 
value. Schopenhauer's pessimistic view is, that 
human life is a useless disturbance of the exquisite 
tranquillity of nothingness. " If birth implies an 
origin from nothingness, then death must be com- 
plete annihilation." Consciousness ceases at death, 
but the cause that produced that consciousness 
persists; life comes to an end, but not the princi- 
ple which became manifest by life. 

The idea of Hartman that the joys of youth are 
short and will terminate in melancholy old age 
is flatly contradicted by my happy old age of ninety- 
four. 

The Jews at one time embraced the doctrine 
of transmigration; the Jewish Bible, it is asserted 
by some, develops no idea of future life. Bushner 
(" Force et Matiere ") declares that Buddhism, 
the most wide-spread and among the most an- 
cient religions, ignores the immortality of the soul. 
Haeckel also confirms this. Buddha avoids the 
statement of this matter. The Jewish Talmud, 
depicting life beyond the grave, says, " There is 
neither eating nor drinking ; the good sit there with 
crowns on their heads and see God in bliss." The 
early Chinese religion was ancestor worship. Con- 
296 



fucius does not change this; his followers and the 
Taoists believe in a future life. 

Metchnikoff largely expounds what are called 
by him the " disharmonies " of human life. 

The early savage buries with the dead weapons 
and other belongings, and sometimes slaves, wives, 
etc., to serve him in another world; food is often 
buried with the dead, and is subsequently placed 
upon the grave from time to time. 

Religion has concerned itself with human nat- 
ural functions, especially with those of procrea- 
tion, generally to thwart all natural proclivities, 
never for the purpose of properly controlling them 
by reason; but to antagonize and abolish them. 
Holding the body in contempt is the acme of holi- 
ness; hence all the torture of self and others, to 
appease God D 

Metchnikoff says: "A future life has no single 
argument to support it, and the non-existence of 
life after death is in consonance with human knowl- 
edge." 

To follow the train of thought upon the subject 
of death, and the speculations of saints and sages 
upon the subsequent results, would be an endless 
task. Among the thinkers there be those who be- 
lieve in a future state of existence; of these latter 
297 



the varieties are innumerable, and often founded 
upon the assumption of a revelation from a spir- 
itual authority. These of course gain the greater 
number of adherents; their credulous followers, 
in their desire to attain impossible knowledge, 
overlook the credible, and accept the fallacies of 
charlatans or fanatics. 

Marcus Aurelius assumed that death r like birth, 
is one of nature's mysteries, and he taught that 
man must live in conformity with the laws of his 
nature, — that " nothing can happen to you that 
is not in accordance with nature's universal law." 
The limbs can only perform the functions for which 
they were intended, and man only defies nature's 
laws when he attempts to nullify the purposes his 
organization was created for. The functions of 
his reason are not to antagonize his nature, but 
to harmonize it with the world in which he lives. 
He is not to starve himself because indulgence 
is sinful; but to control his appetite properly en- 
sures his health and comfort, and is consequently 
commendable and legitimate; so of the other in- 
stincts and organizations over which intellect has 
control. The function of procreation not only 
influences our being, but is connected with that 
of others, and consequently requires the control- 
298 



ling influence of human intellect, replacing the 
temporary instinct of the lower grades of animate 
nature; but the ignoring of any of the attributes 
with which we are gifted is a crime against nature. 
This applies with equal force to our mental powers 
that are not intended to antagonize our physical 
instincts, but are designed to properly direct them 
and to pioneer our course in ascertaining the full 
extent of the heritage to which we have fallen heirs 
and of which, much as we have learned, we are 
still largely ignorant. 

Instead of studying how to perfect our home in 
this world, and secure the greatest amount of hap- 
piness to ourselves and our fellow men, the ma- 
jority of the religious world is intent on reaching 
out into the fabulous unknown to secure " man- 
sions in the skies," about which they know noth- 
ing and only have received vague reports from 
persons whose credentials are as nebulous as their 
revelations. 

The incomprehensible idea that superimposes 
all others is the purpose of creation. We have 
ascertained that there is not only this solar system, 
of whose movements we have acquired a wonder- 
ful amount of knowledge within very recent days, 
but there are innumerable other planets, infinitely 
299 



larger than this world, probably belonging to other 
systems of which as yet we know nothing. While 
we have obtained a knowledge of the fact that we 
live on a revolving orb that moves in a determined 
orbit around the sun, and that there are numerous 
other planets, also coursing around this central 
attraction, some larger and some smaller than our 
earth, we have not ascertained if they are inhab- 
ited by any living entities. With this profound 
ignorance of the character of the inhabitants of 
other planets, including even our small satellite, 
the moon, we know nothing of the other systems 
of which we have no indication but the resplendent 
orbs with which the heavens are spangled. We 
have ascertained that the sun around which we 
revolve is a million times bigger than the earth. 
We are surrounded by living entities, animal and 
vegetable, so innumerable that we have not ac- 
quired a knowledge of them all yet, or their struc- 
ture or properties, but we do know that life per- 
vades all this known creation down to a micro- 
scopic minuteness not yet mastered by our utmost 
ingenuity. 

As we mature in scientific knowledge, we learn 
with absolute certainty that all the wonderful 
creations upon this little planet, so minute a por- 
300 



&J)j)t:ttVfp 

tion of what we know creation to be, were not 
made to subserve the wants and purposes of man 
alone; legions of them never had any contact with 
or relation to his being; we know, further, that 
many of them are detrimental to it. Thus it is 
apparent that man is only one among many 
creations on this little world, a satellite to 
one a million times bigger, and companion to 
several larger ones revolving around the same 
centre. 

There is no doubt that we justly realize that we 
are the most perfect of the creations on this planet ; 
but we know that some of the creatures we are 
surrounded by have certain senses more perfect 
than ours; notably, sight, scent, and hearing, and 
very many are stronger. It is natural for us to 
assume that we, whose intellects are so far above 
all the others, are the favorites of the originator; 
but were all these inferior beings, created with 
such wonderful skill, accuracy, and beauty, with 
such diversified accomplishments, arts, and adorn- 
ments, many of which we have but just discov- 
ered, and some of which we are yet ignorant of, 
created simply for pastime, with no ulterior pur- 
pose but their evanescent lives wholly unconnected 
with man; while we who are formed on the same 
301 



general plan, and are almost the counterpart of 
some of them, have a radically different destina- 
tion? 

The egotism of man has elevated him into the 
most important position in creation, which anal- 
ogy does not warrant. It is not conceivable that 
all this multiplex and infinitely expanded creation 
was devised solely for the conservation of man, 
who is an infinitesimal part of it, placed upon a 
minor satellite of a solar system that is probably not 
the most preponderating of the systems of visible 
stars. We realize that certain laws govern the 
continuity of creation as far as we are cognizant 
of it, and that when they are followed by us the 
result is beneficial; and whenever they are devi- 
ated from, more or less of disaster follows. We 
are conscious that our knowledge of those laws is 
still limited, but that any infraction of them results 
adversely. We know that innumerable ills have 
arisen from ignorance of them, and that no expla- 
nation of them has ever been vouchsafed to man 
save by his own labors and investigations. If 
this is true in regard to physical phenomena, it is 
rational to assume that it holds true regarding 
mental phenomena; hence the only legitimate 
source upon which we can depend for our knowl- 
302 



edge of existence is our own laborious investiga- 
tion of ascertained facts. 

The undeviating course of creation aeons of 
ages before the advent of man produced on this 
planet monstrous, and to us unmeaning, living 
beings that have become extinct, which we are 
now unearthing, like the more recent records of 
forgotten civilization. The purpose of this is be- 
yond human knowledge or conjecture; it cer- 
tainly had no relation to the well-being of man 
in his present state or future destiny, although it 
occupied many more times of the earth's course 
than the career of man upon it. We see that na- 
ture will not deviate from its appointed laws, for 
the convenience or will of man; but we know that 
as we learn more and more of those laws they can 
be employed for our good, or avoided when harmful. 

The acts of man in his intercourse with his fel- 
low man are an epitome of life. By nature he is 
gregarious, and in the incipient stages of associa- 
tion his rights and acts were undefined, he was 
governed alone by impulse and will, and the 
strongest controlled the weakest regardless of 
justice. When this became unbearable combina- 
tions were formed to regulate and suppress the 
tyranny. This has engaged the energies of man 

3°$ 



down to the present day, without arriving at an 
equilibrium, owing to the selfish interests of indi- 
viduals in formulating laws by which they could 
gain advantage over their compeers. 

In this race of the most cunning to gain ascend- 
ency over their less appreciative fellow men, the 
incipient stages of discontent, envy, and crime 
were engendered, and it is to this stage of human 
civilization that we should look for the incitement 
of the criminal classes. 

In the progress of organized society the most 
potent factor controlling it has been the theolog- 
ical or religious element growing out of man's 
wonderment at the inexplicable creation by which 
he was surrounded. This afforded an opportu- 
nity for designing men to formulate theories of 
a supreme power, giving themselves authority 
over their fellow men to rule them by divine right, 
which crystallized into autocratic and monarchical 
rule, generally dominated by priestly control, 
which was made to strengthen the kingly ruler. 
This combination of church and state has descended 
to modern times, and forms the basis of all mon- 
archical governments, emphasized by a kingly 
ruler of the universe. 

This shows the source of modern speculations, 
3°4 



and endless philosophical theories, in which the 
world has often been charged with chaotic wrong, 
instead of being recognized as a thoroughly or- 
ganized immensity under immutable law, that 
cannot be antagonized in its minutest particular with 
impunity. From an ignorance or disregard of nat- 
ural laws all the ills of life that men complain of arise. 
Undoubtedly the source of unhappiness in human 
life is ignorance; active search for, and attain- 
ment of knowledge, the discovery of new facts 
and their application to the wants, comfort, and 
happiness of the race is an ever increasing source 
of joy to the earnest observer. The idea of inac- 
tive happiness is inconceivable, as is an immova- 
ble world; progress is the fundamental source of 
happiness, and the attainment of all knowledge — 
not likely to curse the inhabitants of this world — 
would produce a real nirvana. Perfect happiness 
is not possible, say the pessimists; is it desir- 
able? Is there a stronger inducement in the pur- 
suit of knowledge than the attainment of greater 
happiness, greater comfort, which if perfectly at- 
tained would cause a cessation of energy? The 
incitement to action, the prompting to do, is the 
mainspring of mental activity, and consequently 
the perfecting of our existence. 

30S 



®pptttifiv 

It is a trite saying, " Man was born to die," but 
is that a cause of sorrow to the philosopher? Do 
we not see that through this dispensation life is 
given to an infinitely greater number of beings 
than could be otherwise possible? There is a uni- 
versal law dominant on this planet, that matter 
is persistent but constantly changing, and that 
where any stagnation appears an active agent sets 
the inert matter in motion. Even the rocks and 
mountains are disintegrated, but the elements 
remain. 

Man is no exception to the law of dissolution, 
but that is no reason why he should not actively 
employ to their utmost capacity all the functions 
with which he is endowed for his well-being, and 
enjoy the advantages by which he is surrounded 
for his present good. Is it the part of wisdom to 
refuse to be made happy by present joys because 
we are uncertain whether or not we shall possess 
them another year? Our business is with the 
present, which includes effort for the continuance 
of our prosperity for the future so far as our knowl- 
edge extends. A beautiful trait implanted in us 
gives us happiness in providing for our offspring 
so necessary to perpetuate the race, which is en- 
joyed also by the lower animate beings. 
306 



&»ptuXiiV 

A study of the cause and origin of the innumer- 
able legends and detailed histories of supernat- 
ural phenomena and miraculous events, including 
interviews between gods and men, with which the 
literature of the world is permeated, displays a 
primitive misconception of the universe and" the 
mundane creation prior to the attainment of a 
knowledge of the laws that control the phenom- 
ena producing the visible world as it is now 
known. 

The complex structure of the human mind has 
been a fruitful source of speculative research in 
psychological, metaphysical, and philosophical prob- 
lems, commencing long anterior to recorded his- 
tory. 

Records of actual events have been interspersed 
with fables about gods and demons that have in- 
terfered in the affairs of men as the source of good 
and evil, while the fecund efflorescence of thought 
striving with the unknown has led men astray 
in abstruse speculations. 

The intercourse depicted between gods and 
men has become more restricted in the present 
age, and doubts are entertained of its truthful- 
ness in recent times — if familiarity with the devil 
has been more frequent, and continued longer, 
3°7 



MpptttiHv 

it shows a penchant for the " horrible and awful," 
difficult to account for. 

In the glimmering dawn of historic times, as we 
have seen, tradition extends far back into anterior 
ages, so that all account of a beginning is lost in 
nebulous fable. There were many sources from 
which issued accounts of man's origin, all of them 
more or less filled with the marvellous, but all 
assuming a derivation from the gods. Of those 
early legends we need only allude to the Hindu- 
stan, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Chinese, as those 
cults illustrate the progress of recorded mental 
thought. 

In the East are found the earliest traces of the 
human race; in Hindustan there are prehistoric 
works massive and wonderful, wrought by the 
hand of man; of the origin of these works we 
have no knowledge, but they emphasize the re- 
ligious fervor of their originators. In that land of 
fruitful legend we discover traces of early culture 
that show a high degree of refinement, and knowl- 
edge of the apparent universe; there are no rec- 
ords extant that show a depth of thought not ex- 
ceeded in modern times; from their traditions we 
learn they claimed to be the first inhabitants of 
the world, that had existed aeons of ages. Their 
308 



sacred records are written in a language that has 
ceased to be spoken since historic time, and no 
tradition remains of its origin, or when it was in 
use. 

The Hindus record four ages. The first was an 
age of purity, in which men were giants, and lived 
to an immense age. They were innocent and un- 
selfish, living in a state of nature. This age was 
terminated by a deluge that obliterated every- 
thing. In the second age men deteriorated phys- 
ically and mentally, and their god Brahma placed 
over them a ruler. In the third age men grew 
still less virtuous. In the fourth or present age, 
man's life was limited to a hundred years; it was 
commenced about five thousand years ago; man's 
stature was diminished, and he is growing smaller 
and more wicked. Goodness, purity, unselfish- 
ness, and justice were recognized in the most an- 
cient times of which we have any record, and were 
the virtues most commended. Such is an outline 
of the knowledge taught in primitive ages in the 
earliest records of human effort. 

The Chinese trace back their nation to an age 
of god-begotten ancestry full of the higher virtues, 
among which was a devotion to ancestry and a 
profound respect for parents. The high moral 

3°9 



teaching and civilization inculcated in this na- 
tion's advancement culminated in the maxims 
and aphorisms attributed to Confucius, among 
which is the golden rule unsurpassed by any sub- 
sequent teaching from any source. " Do unto 
others that which you would have them do unto 
you; and do not unto others that you would not 
they should do unto you; this is all of the law." 
In what other maxim attributed to gods or men 
has there been embodied so much of wisdom and 
virtue? This aphorism in varied forms has been 
plagiarized by other religionists and attributed 
to their gods as a divine revelation emanating from 
them. 

The Egyptian cult dating back beyond historic 
time is filled with precepts for a holy life, in which 
the highest virtues are extolled. In the Book of 
the Dead, the soul of the departed is weighed and 
examined to determine the recompense or pun- 
ishment it is to receive in a future state. 

The Babylonians and Assyrians had a volumi- 
nous literature stored in the palaces of their kings, 
fortunately in unimperishable material, that has 
descended to us, like the Egyptian records, uncor- 
rupted by ages of expositors; their legends are 
full of ancient traditions, precepts, and morals, 
310 



&pptu?Hv 

with an accountability to a supreme being, and 
with an apprehension of right and wrong; among 
their records is found a history of creation which 
was evidently plagiarized by the Jews after their 
return from captivity, and incorporated into their 
book of Genesis. In that legend there is a curious 
fable illustrating the phenomenon of procreation 
and its concomitant, death. A man and a woman 
were created by God, who announced to them 
that so long as they remained in a state of igno- 
rance (of their physical powers) they should live, 
but when they transcended that state, " ate of the 
fruit of knowledge," they should surely die; the 
corollary was obvious, a multiplication of the 
species involved the penalty of death; as the race 
has continued to perpetrate the sin of procrea- 
tion, the penalty of death continues to afflict 
mankind. This legend is doubtless the ori- 
gin of the unnatural and absurd dogma that celi- 
bacy is holy and commendable, which has per- 
vaded numerous religions down to the present 
day. 

One fact is conspicuous in the history of na- 
tions: they all personify a supreme being or na- 
tional God that originated themselves and the 
creation by which they are surrounded, whose 

3 11 



habitation was generally over the apparent " fir- 
mament " above, invisible to human eyes. What 
was the source of this pervading belief? Was it 
a vicarious revelation from God to man without 
which he would be ignorant of the fact, or was it 
a natural deduction derived from his view of the 
objects by which he was surrounded and of whose 
origin he was ignorant ? 

Since the maturity of the human intellect as it 
now appears, men have been striving to ascertain 
the originator of the creation by which they are 
surrounded. This universal craving has begot- 
ten innumerable theories and dogmatic legends 
coined from the fertile brains of successive genera- 
tions in contact with nature, from which imagi- 
nation drew pictures of other regions inhabited 
by superhuman beings with unlimited powers. 
To enhance and confirm the superhuman theories, 
it was asserted that the authors had held converse 
with the supreme powers who revealed the sub- 
lime truths they announced. Such revelations 
were received with unquestioning faith by the 
credulous multitude and congealed into religions, 
to which changes, modifications, and additions 
were from time to time made to suit the advance 
of subsequent knowledge. 
312 



The exuberant fancy of the East has permeated 
all religions down to modern times, in which the 
supernatural is still believed in. 

We have attempted to briefly show that instead of 
the stultifying and degrading doctrine that the in- 
clination of man is evil, he has aspired from earli- 
est times to become good and virtuous to the extent 
of his knowledge. His great struggle has been with 
ignorance, and the misleading teachings of unedu- 
cated pretenders who have formulated from their 
own fertile brains legends innumerable to illus- 
trate their conception of man's duties. 

In these chapters we have advanced no theory 
of a future existence ; every one must determine that 
question for himself. We have shown that man 
has never had any revelation except from the coin- 
age of his own fertile brain, as his fancy dictated. 
No one has adduced any fact to prove annihilation 
at death, and it is equally true that we have no 
knowledge of a future existence except the excogi- 
tations of men with no more, if as much, knowledge 
as ourselves ; no one is barred from either belief by 
any attainable fact yet discovered; the point that 
every rational being should realize is, that the 
whole question is beyond the possibility of solution 
with our present attainments. 

3*3 



The whole category of mental phenomena now 
attracting the attention of the thinking world is 
obstructed and retarded by the aberrations 
arising from preconceived errors and assump- 
tions. 

Great progress has been made in analyzing the 
powers of the human mind in influencing and being 
influenced by others; the phenomena of psychol- 
ogy, hypnotism, and analogous sciences, now in 
embryo, are as yet without a fundamental basis of 
undisputed fact, hence they come under the cogno- 
men of spiritual emanations. With a better knowl- 
edge of the brain's attributes in nature will come 
fewer mysteries. 

If in the preceding pages I have in the smallest 
degree aided in ridding the world of the fictitious 
and fiendish theologies, with their cumbersome and 
artificial laws and rules (often opposing the laws of 
nature) with which the human mind has in all his- 
torical ages been engulfed, and shown that the 
true source of all knowledge acquired by man is 
due to his own wonderful powers of ratiocination 
and observation with which he was endowed at 
birth, unaided by any supernatural revelation or 
other aid beyond his natural surroundings, I shall 
have achieved my purpose of directing his atten- 
3i4 



®ppmXHv 

tion and energies from the fabulous and unreal to 
the true purposes of his existence, with a correct 
understanding of his relations in this world to na- 
ture and his fellow men. 



THE END. 



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